The Perfect Guy
by TrickstersImp
Summary: When Lyla Oliver gets her heart broken, it hurts. She decides that her little brother will never be like that, not if she can help it. Her brother is going to be the Perfect Guy, and the Perfect Guy deserves the Perfect Girl. That girl is not Jade West.
1. Prologue

A fifteen year old girl tapped her glasses, examining her face intently. What was it about her that had led her to be so quickly dumped? What was it about her that meant the first guy she had liked for as long as she could possibly remember had decided that she wasn't good enough for him?

Was it her face, she wondered, examining every single flaw.

Her hair grew down to her shoulders, curling ever so slightly at the very edge. It was a dark brown, a dark brown that she decided that she absolutely despised and just hid the twinkle of a couple freckles speckled across her nose.

Eliza Oliver looked like a sweet girl, which a week ago she was. Lyla Oliver was one of the sweetest girls you could meet. She had flaws, but you could tell that she had a good heart underneath it all. The only problem here was that Jared Rose was able to take a sweet girl and chew her up and spit her out. He didn't exactly mean to, it just sort of happened.

Lyla had managed to think she was she was different. Lyla had managed to think that she was special. And today Lyla had to realise that she really wasn't. She was nothing.

Her looks pictured her as a classic girl next door, but she was oblivious to the fact she might have been pretty. She had completely achieved the opinion in her mind that she was devastatingly ugly.

She tapped the edge of her glasses and pulled them off hesitantly, trying to see what she would look like without the wire specs around her big brown eyes. It was a failure though, she couldn't see the slightest thing at the moment it was all just a fuzzy little blur. She probably looked better like that though.

She almost couldn't believe how superficial she looked at the moment. Lyla had never been a vain girl, but she needed some explanation. She needed some explanation, as all teenage girls do, about why her heart had been ripped out, thrown on the ground and repeatedly stamped all over. She needed some reason why the 'love of her life' had decided to dump her. And the one that she derived was that she was horrible.

That she was ugly, and fat, and disgusting. She didn't know why Jared had asked her out in the first place. She didn't know why they had dated for two months. Maybe if she had been a better girlfriend, or been prettier, more attractive then she wouldn't be alone now.

She didn't quite know why she was making such a fuss over a guy, but she really couldn't help herself. Like most girls in her situation, she thought that her life was over. With that realisation, she collapsed down on the bed.

"Ly?" A voice came from outside the door and although she wanted to scream, she wouldn't let herself.

Her eleven year old brother poked his head through the door, his dark black hair just hanging into his eyes and Lyla was overcome with an urge to ruffle it on top of his head.

"What's wrong?" Lyla wanted to laugh at Beck's innocence. Maybe one day he'd be making a girl just like her break down and cry over him. She knew he'd be a hit with the ladies when he got old enough.

Then something hardened inside of her. That little kid in front of her was not going to grow up to be a jerk with an ego the size of Manhattan. That boy was going to be the one that every girl in school would want to be with because they knew he would treat them like a princess.

Her little brother was going to be the perfect guy.

She would make sure of that if it absolutely killed her. And when the time came along for him to finally get a girlfriend, then she knew that the Perfect Guy would end up with the Perfect Girl. She could imagine Beck with a cheerleader smiling at him, being nice to everybody with a bright smile on her face. For some reason, there also happened to be a trail of blonde hair out behind her and she had bright blue eyes.

The funny thing was, although Lyla didn't quite realise it yet the girl she had described in her head was absolutely nothing in the slightest like Beck's future girlfriend.

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><p><em><strong>It's short, I know, but it is just a prologue, the actual chapters are longer. And I know it was OC based, but this story will also contain high amounts of Bade, basically it will focus on the Senior year (all OCs) and Freshmen year (VicTORIous cast).<strong>_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_

_**Oh, and please review, it really makes my day.**_


	2. Changed

Elle Oliver slipped back into the halls of Hollywood Arts, a smile playing on her lips. It was just like she remembered it, not that it had changed. It had been the same since she joined freshman year and it would probably be exactly the same when her little brother Beck was a senior. It was her who had changed, not this place.

Elle flicked her perfect blonde hair over her shoulder and glanced around the many people crowding the halls. Her eyes darted quickly around for new faces in the crowd. There weren't that many at all, obviously the freshmen were there, but there were no new seniors she could recognise. That was a good thing in her head. She didn't have to go through the stress of explaining how things worked here, or figuring out what category they would surely fit into to. It was a tough job being one of the most popular girls in school. But she loved it anyway. She had worked hard to get to the top spot, or at least one of the top. It was so far from what she had used to be, and she didn't regret a second of it. Little old Lyla Oliver had pretty much disappeared into oblivion, she was gone. She would have said she was dead but that just seemed morbid. Elle Oliver didn't like to be morbid, it wasn't her. And what was the point of being popular if you didn't have the attitude to enjoy it. She wasn't Little Miss Sunshine, and she definitely loved her sarcasm to death, but she wasn't a girl who had to make people hurt to make herself feel better.

She would leave Kelli to dish out the insults, that was what she enjoyed after all, wasn't it? And at that moment Kelli Shettler was doing just that. She prided herself on being what she liked to call the Head Bitch in Charge of this school and she wasn't afraid to crush anybody who got in her way. And there were only two girls in the entire school that could possibly have a shot at doing that. The first was Elle Oliver, who she really didn't have to be that concerned about, considering the girls she chose to hang out with. How on earth did she stay popular having a best friend like Piper Knight? Kelli had no clue, but she wasn't going to let anything happen to her popularity anyway, although she didn't think that Elle had the guts to do anything like that in the first place. She was still that little girl who was too awkwardly shy to speak out in class that she used to be.

Her real problem was much more severe. Her real problem was Sophie… Sophie Kale. Maybe she could call her the Head Bitch in Waiting. And Sophie almost certainly classified as a bitch. Sophie could crush a girl's dreams in her sleep and then would have a good laugh about it. Kelli shot her a side long glance, sliding up to the locker with a smile on her face.

"So, how was your hols?" She smirked, a tiny smile on her face that Sophie didn't miss. To everybody else they looked like best friends, but each one of them could actually feel the tension slicing through the air.

"It was a perfect, Kels. We spent most of the time in Spain, did you know that the Mediterranean is just lovely this time of year." Sophie mirrored her smile and they almost gave a snicker, before the two disappeared down the hallways together.

Beck yawned as his sister stood in the middle of the hallway. He moved to the left and to the right, but nothing seemed to get her out of his way.

"Ly?" He asked, poking her subtly in the back. She spun around quickly.

"Don't call me that. My name is Elle. It hasn't been Lyla since freshmen year, and I don't think I want to become like that again, because my little brother has decided to spread it around the school as quickly as he possibly can." Beck raised his eyebrows slightly at the comment.

"I didn't think that girls needed to change who they were." He smirked, repeating his older sister's words almost completely precisely.

"Yeah… perfect. You know, you're going to make some girl very happy one day soon." And of course he would, because that's what Elle had been planning on. He had been the perfect guy since he was about twelve. Now she just had to find the perfect girl worthy of his affections. And there weren't that many of those around the place. Faye's little sister was the first to come to mind, but she had already tried that. She hadn't been able to resist it.

"So _Elle_, are you going to move, or am I going to be late for Sikowitz's class?"

"Well first of all you're going to be late for Sikowitz's class, because all the people are, but I'll move anyway." She budged a tiny bit and Beck slipped past, walking down the lockers nonchalantly.

"Because it would just kill you if I wasn't cool."

"Exactly, now don't forget try-outs tomorrow afternoon." Elle called down the corridor and Beck waved goodbye to her. Maybe it would kill Elle to have her brother not be popular, but would probably kill her even more was the fact that he didn't actually want to be popular. Or at least, he didn't want to be popular in the same way that she had always wanted to be popular. Beck didn't think he'd be able to live with being a jock and having to keep up an _image._ He just wanted to be himself, but maybe he didn't really know it all.

Anyway, Hollywood Arts was in what would be one day known to most of the current students as the Dark Days, and to a select few as the Golden Age. But the problem for the few and the joy to the masses was that the Golden Age was about to fall.

Elle didn't know this, though. She didn't quite know that she was the last ruminant of a dying breed. It didn't seem like it at the time. Elle walked along to her History class, humming a little tune under her breath, content with how things were in the world. Things like that didn't last very long, not with her. There would always be something whirling around in her head to make her freak out about something else. She worried too much and she knew it, but what good does that do when you can't do a thing to stop it? Her mind began to wander as if just realising she was happy and becoming determined to do something to prevent that fact. She began to pick up her pace, realising that she was going to be late for Homeroom if she wasn't careful and no matter how cool that would be, she still needed her teacher to like her, or she wasn't going to be able to do well this semester. As she walked through the place, she missed somebody call her name from behind her.

Piper Knight sighed under her breath. It wasn't unusual anymore for her best friend not to notice her so much. She was probably one of the only people in the school that didn't notice her. Piper wasn't exactly a quiet girl. She glanced at Ember besides her who shot her a sympathetic glance. Piper wasn't feeling sorry for herself, but she was feeling sorry for Lyla. Lyla had become a completely different person than her best friend. It just wasn't fair. Then again Piper had changed too. She pulled her leather jacket on a bit tighter, and brushed her deep brown hair out of her eyes, watching the blonde tips whizz past and with them the thoughts of a friendship that was slowly disappearing. It didn't matter that much anyway, they were still quite close, even if Lyla was a... urgh... cheerleader right now. Maybe it was a phase she would grow out of. Piper was very hopeful that this was the case at the moment.

And she had managed to find a new friend in Ember. She wasn't drastically unpopular in the slightest, although she didn't feel the need to work so hard for what seemed so very pointless. And it was, in fact, Ember that had told her most of what she had known about cheerleaders in the first place. Ember had a step-sister, and she really wasn't exactly fond of her. Aurora seemed as bad a sister as you could possibly get. She was one of those girls that was a big hit with the boys, but amongst the girls she wasn't exactly most people's favourite person. Sometimes she had trouble remembering that Lyla wasn't like that... or wondering slightly in her head if maybe she now Lyla was.

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><p><strong><em>Eight reviews! I love you all so much. I have got more alerts in this one story than I do for my stories that have been running for months.<em>**

**_I love you so much that I am going to thank all of you. So thanks..._**

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**_I love you all. And through all of the other things this story is... it is basically a How Bade Met Story, so it will definitely end Bade. Jade herself will be introduced about chapter... 4._**


	3. Introduced

In Sikowitz's classroom the tension was reaching a breaking point. Beck had come ten minutes later than he was supposed to and still there was no teacher. Just a group of very nervous freshmen crowded into one improv room. Beck flicked his black hair out of his eyes and leaned back against his chair, propping his feet up on the one across the aisle from him. At least if the teacher didn't actually turn up he could get a good snooze in. His parents told him to go to sleep early last night, much earlier that he had wanted to, so of course he had had no choice but to stay up as late as he possibly could have to annoy them. He was beginning to pay the price now, as his brain didn't seem to be able to put two thoughts together. He took a sip of his coffee and felt the warmth rush through him.

It was by no means perfect, but it helped.

"Hi!" Suddenly he heard a voice above him. If it had been a regular voice he would have been fine. But this was not a regular voice; it was a high pitched, eager, excited voice that almost became a scream. Beck groaned and took another sip of his coffee.

"Hi!" The voice repeated again, and now he looked up to see who it was. It belonged to the type of girl you would picture when hearing it. She was short, no more than 5'2" That thing was the masses of _bright red hair _flowing down her back. Beck sighed once more. This was not the type of girl you wanted to be dealing with while you had a headache. But then again, surely his sister had prepared him for this sort of thing. He was supposed to do something like a Meet and Greet with his class. Personally, Beck found the idea stupid(,) but he wasn't planning on saying that to his sister. That was partly because she'd then spend half an hour trying to persuade him that it was definitely necessary. He figured that would be more painful than just doing what she said in the first place. He knew he'd end up doing it anyway.

"Hi…" he said in a dull voice, although he did try and stick some charisma in there. The girl didn't care either way and started to bob up and down on the spot. Beck began to stare, getting more confused by the second.

"I'm not a dog!" the girl said, laughing. Beck raised his eyebrows at her, at this point he had no clue what on Earth was actually happening here.

"But I am a pet…" She smiled again and giggled.

"Alright…" Eh, what harm could him talking to the girl actually do? He resigned himself to realise he was not going to be able to get her to shut up, so he took another swig of his coffee and began to participate in the conversation. "Are you a… fox then?" He smiled at her, expecting her to laugh again. She didn't.

In fact, she began to scream, and ear-spllitting scream that the whole room could hear, and across the room he could see people giving them side-long glances.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Beck resisted the urge to put his fingers in his ears as he managed to get a reply out of there.

"That your hair is red, like a fox's." The red-head calmed down immediately and returned to her smile.

"Well, yeah, it is, but I'm not… so yes, no, yes, no, yes…"

She began to go around and around in circles, making not a lot of sense before Beck looked her right in the eye, sick of all her nonsense and said to her face, "Get to the point."

"Cat…" She squealed again, and Beck came to the conclusion that this was a very weird school.

"Cat?"

"That's my name!" She smiled and Beck slightly registered that name under the picture of the red-head in his mind.

"Cat…" He whispered under his breath. It was a strange name for what seemed like a very strange girl. She looked like a tabby Cat, with bright red fur floating out. She was a little bubble of energy, threatening to explode at any minute. It made Beck smile as he thought about it. It seemed like it would be hard to be depressed with her around.

Cat was studying Beck with a less analytical view. She glanced over the guy lying back on his chair, looking half asleep. He was fairly obviously one of those cool guys. Maybe he was even one of those ')too cool to care about anything' guys. Cat didn't really care about that. All that Cat cared about was that she had made a new friend. She sat down next to the dark haired guy, glancing to the side.

Suddenly they were joined by another guy, sitting on the other side of Beck, across the aisle from groaned as a pale-faced, freckled youth with hair that just couldn't be contained and instead sprung up in an afro sat down. What was the most annoying thing, though, was the fact that he had a small, dark-haired, loud-mouthed puppet on his arm. He was the sort of guy that most people would just ignore and hope for the love of God that he would go away soon. Beck was slightly ashamed to admit that this was what he was thinking right now.

"Hey, Cat." He smiled, with an adoring look in his eye. It was the first day of school and already it was apparent he had a bit of a thing for his new classmate. Beck groaned, knowing that this boy would try to talk to him as well. It wasn't as if he just didn't want to talk to anybody, he was just tired, with a headache. Normally he was friendly, but he wasn't in his normal mood today. Beck took another sip of his coffee, hoping that soon the two would just decide to go away.

"Hi Robbie!" Cat squealed, making Beck want to cover his ears. Apparently the Andy Samberg lookalike on his other side was called Robbie. He didn't care that much,though.

"Are you looking forward to improv class?" Robbie asked Cat. Great, now they were having a conversation either side of him.

"Yep! My brother once improvised that there was an elephant on top of him. It wasn't very good, because there was actually one on him." She giggled and despite himself and his gloomy mood, Beck laughed a little along with her.

"Apparently it's taught by a total nutjob." Samberg smirked.

"It is…" Beck piped up, unable to resist commenting about Sikowitz's completely insane lessons and teaching styles. "But that's why we love it." Samberg gave him a very confused look, apparently not quite getting how weird this school was. But then again, it didn't really seem like he could judge at all. Beck knew he was being mean, but that couldn't prevent the thoughts running through his head. The guy was weird.

At that moment that said teacher entered the room. He didn't enter through the door, because of course that would have been far too normal for Sikowitz. Erwin Sikowitz was not, by any stretch of the definition, a normal teacher. He was known throughout the school as totally and completely insane. And there was a reason that he had that reputation. Yeah, Beck may have thought that Samberg and Cat were weird but he knew that was nothing compared to his new Drama teacher. He reached down into his bag, and grabbed the two coconuts he had been given by Elle. He knew he was kissing up to the teacher, but he didn't really care that much. It was always good to have the teacher on your side. At least this way, he was getting the teacher on the class's side, not just being a teacher's pet.

"Okay, acting exercise!" He called out, and they all exchanged glances, utterly confused. "You're all marathon runners, about to run a mile." The new freshmen stayed completely still, not having a clue what to do. Cat looked downright terrified, and even the puppet's mouth was wide open.

"Well, run!" At that moment Beck thanked God for both his sister's knowledge and the coconuts in his gift.

"Sikowitz?" he called out and Sikowitz walked over to him.

"Oliver?" Sikowitz said Beck's name as a question, not a statement. Beck would have guessed that he was going completely off how he resembled Elle. They did look similar despite everything Elle had done to change her looks. They just couldn't help it.

Beck gave a curt nod to him, and added, "Beck… And well, I got something for you. I hope you like them." Beck heard a cough come from the back of the room. But it wasn't a real cough, it was more like…

"*cough* suck up *cough*" Beck gave him a glance behind him and placed a finger over his lips. Sikowitz raised his eyebrows and his mouth grew to a giant smile.

"You got me coconuts!" Sikowitz smirked at him. "You are very definitely Elle's brother." At the mention of Elle, everybody that had knowledge of this school shut up. It was an unnerving feeling, but Elle was close to Kelli, and Sophie and Aurora, three girls who could and would make your life a living hell if they felt like it. Maybe they would do it just for kicks.

Beck retrieved the coconuts and Sikowitz grabbed them gratefully.

"Okay… change of plan. Instead, you are all marathon runners that have just _finished _running a mile and are now really exhausted." Most of the class breathed a nervous sigh of relief, not quite sure if their teacher would have been mad enough to make them run a mile in the first place, but were glad they didn't have to take the chance. Well(,) that was, apart from Cat in the corner, who had no idea what was going on.

Cat didn't know exactly what was going on most of the time, but she didn't really mind. She knew what was happening when it was important. But it didn't really matter if she knew if she was going to have to run a mile or not. She gave a little giggle as she glanced around the room, only slightly aware of how much of an airhead she looked to the rest of the class. She glanced around one last time and caught the boy who she had met this morning's eye. You know, the one with the puppet. He smiled at her and gave a little wave.

That made two new friends today. Cat thought that was pretty good for the first day in school.

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><p><strong>I have 17 reviews! I cannot actually believe it. I woke up the morning after I posted my first chapter and was just like... woah! There was an insane amount of review alerts in there. So yeah, I love you all, once again... epic, lovely people. You ever need a bff, I am here. See you next time...<strong>

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**And thank you to all who have alerted.**

**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**

**:)**


	4. Popularized

The boys entered the Senior Classroom utterly laughing their heads off about some joke that nobody could even remember anymore. It was homeroom, so it didn't wouldn't have really mattered in a normal school. It mattered far less in Hollywood Arts. The popular people were too busy chatting about the homecoming party. With a glance up at the end of the room, Jared could confirm that they had their typical seats saved. He walked across and sat down next with Kelli, smiling slightly. He slid his arm over her and watched her turn faintly red. They had been dating for months now but it was still nice to be able to see her do that. With he ran through his hair with the other hand, brushing it back.

Both he and Kelli knew that everybody in the room wanted to be one of them right now. Kelli was gorgeous, and she knew it, thin and curvy with those kinds of startling blue eyes. And that was before you started to talk about the long blonde hair that she was presently twirling around her finger absent-mindedly.

Well, it wasn't exactly absent-mindedly. Kelli knew what she was doing. Kelli was gloating. She snuck a look at Sophie, who was staring at her almost enviously, knowing probably because Kelli was in the 'It Couple' of the school. It was just another thing that made her the undoubted Queen of this area in the first place. She was proud of that fact, and feeling the need to rub it in a little bit more, she turned to face Jared and kissed him, holding it for as long as she possibly could. They only broke apart when she heard a very loud cough from Marc, who had suddenly appeared behind her and took his seat on the other side of Sophie.

"What?" Kelli asked, completely faking innocence. To those who knew her, though, it was pretty obvious she wasn't innocent. In fact, most of them knew that nothing that Kelli ever did was innocent.

"Cut it out with the PDA, we've been in school for what, five minutes? At this rate you're going beat Princess's record over there." He gestured to Aurora in her seat. They had sat in the same seats for years; only rarely making a couple adjustments, when someone new entered the group.

Right now, sitting there in the corner of the room were! Marc, Jared, Asa, Arthur,and Rev, and that was honestly all they needed (or wanted, for that matter). They were the jock crowd and they stuck together, the entire school knew that. It was as exclusive as becoming a cheerleader and there was no way you could shove yourself in.

After Marc's comment to Aurora, Arth leaned over and wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. Most of the group wasn't quite sure how Arth managed to wiggle his eyebrows _suggestively_; in fact, some weren't quite sure how anybody wiggled their eyebrows at all. Aurora shoved him away, but everybody knew that Arth was kidding.

Well, everybody knew that Arth was kidding apart from Arth. Arth had that little burning crush that he would never admit to, as much as he wanted to. The Princess wasn't the type of girl he should be with anyway, or so he had been told. It was all stupid anyway; he wouldn't have a chance with her. She was so out of his league it wasn't perceivable. Or at least that was what Arthur had always talked himself into believing.

"Aww… so you won't give me a kiss then?" He smirked, and Elle rolled her eyes and the ridiculousness of it all.

"In your dreams." Aurora laughed along with the crowd; they were playing a little game. She didn't quite know she was breaking another guy's heart without even meaning to.

"You feature in my dreams every night, baby." Marc joined in, giving her his very best flirty eyes. He was kidding, like the rest of them, and this time, he was actually kidding. None of this meant anything to Aurora. She was used to flirting with pretty much a different guy every day, or even a different guy every hour. It was the type of girl she was and it was easy for her, with the kind of looks which, coupled with her name, had gained her the nickname of Princess.

"And you're in my nightmares." she retorted fast and the whole group around them burst into laughter.

"Ooh! You got owned." Sophie smirked and Marc silenced her with one gaze. It wasn't funny when it was Sophie laughing at him. He couldn't stand having her laughing at him. It filled him with this despicable urge to do something about it and to keep her silent.

Sophie went bright red, wondering why on earth Marc hated her so much. She may not have been the nicest girl in school but she wasn't downright nasty like the rest of them - okay, well, she wasn't as bad as Kelli. But then again, nobody could ever be quite as bad as Kelli. She was definitely a step up from Aurora as well. She just didn't quite get it. She was pretty and popular and perky but he hated her, he always had. They were part of the same group but they spent as little time as possible actually with each other. They hadn't hung out outside of the group in years.

Avoiding all of this at the back were Rev and Asa, just well, avoiding it all. Rev had his reasons to avoiding the flirting just like Jared did. It was fine to flirt with random girls, even Princess, and in some cases, especially Princess, when you were single, but Rev wasn't by any means single. Rev was in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, by his standings. Rev was head over heels for Faye: it hadn't gone on for very long yet, but he was looking forward to the day when he could say that this had only been the beginning of the two of them. Rev would have been able to talk about Faye for hours and fact,he was taking the opportunity to spend that long discussing her at length with Asa.

"Dude, shut up!" Asa finally snapped "I'm so thrilled you're dating Faye, it's about time as well. I can't believe you didn't ask her in Sophomore year. You had to wait until she's a Junior and you only have a year of school left to ask her. But I've told you how happy I am for you approximately a million times now, and I've met Faye, I know how _amazingly, wonderfully, brilliant _she is."

Rev looked hurt. Obviously Asa knew his Junior girlfriend, but did he really know her? Did he notice every single thing about her, like that way a tiny strand of brown hair would always catch behind her ear? Did he see the way her brown eyes would give out this little twinkle or know that her laugh sounded like a million little tiny bells? Did he know how she was just so unbelievably kind and that he was so lucky to have her and he couldn't really believe that he did? Well, the last bit Asa probably knew.

In fact, Asa knew pretty much everything he could about Faye by now. He had known Faye pretty well in the first place, but this was getting ridiculous. If Rev mentioned that he was taking Faye to the Homecoming Dance this Friday one more time, he thought he was actually going to explode. He was not actually kidding. And Asa was not normally a violent person. Well, you know, apart from the fact that he was on the football team. But then again, so was everybody else there, so it wasn't exactly fair to count that against him. But everybody by now knew that Rev and Faye were going out and had been all summer. It was almost odd that the honeymoon stage hadn't run out by now. But Rev had always been the last to get up the guts to do anything, ever since they had been little kids. Maybe Rev hadn't got up the guts to move on into the actual relationship yet.

You see, this was why Asa loved home room. You did nothing for fifteen or twenty minutes, absolutely nothing. The girls were chatting about holidays now, and 'OMG Who made out with whom'! He could see Marc, Jared, and Arth chatting about the party tonight and who they were bringing. Rev had taken the opportunity to attempt to completely torture him for no apparent reason. But still, Asa loved homeroom. Actually, that had decided it for him, homeroom was his new girlfriend. Now he would have someone to bore Rev to death about.

Elle was the one person who was being just sort of quiet today. She didn't quite know why. Maybe she was just worried about Beck and how he was fitting in. Maybe she was wondering if Beck had remembered those all-important coconuts. Maybe she just didn't care about that much this morning. Or it could have been seeing her ex again after managing to avoid him all summer. It has been three years and it was still slightly painful to look at Jared. Or maybe… it could have possibly been that feeling inside of her that foreshadowed her whole world was going to turn upside down and chuck her out of it.

She told herself that she was being ridiculous, but that never helped the feeling in the very pit of her stomach. She told herself she was being pessimistic, but that didn't make it go away.

And you never know… she may have just been right.

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><p><strong><em>Guys, about the OCs, I know there are a lot of them, but I wanted to incorporate LylaElle and she needed her own friends. On the bright side, JADE comes in next chapter. Those that have Freshman OCs, remember Bade has to happen before Lyla can try and break it up. They should be in about the tenth chapter._**

**_Love the reviewers:_**

**_ - aka didn't bother to put a name. Yeah, but I did warn you about OCs anf if you'd bothered to read chapter 3 then you would have seen more Beck._**

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**_:0_**

**_(Lol, typed the wrong button in the smiley, supposed to be :), but I think I like it :0)_**


	5. Jaded

Sikowitz was teaching his class of new students with a level of enthusiasm that literally none of the students had ever seen before. The redhead was sitting in the corridor, her mouth wide open with a slight giggle on the tip of her tongue. Puppet boy was clutching onto that puppet for dear life, only to have him stop every few seconds and begin to exclaim.

"Man, this teacher is a freak." The puppet, who apparently Robbie had decided to nickname Rex, had just commented in his weird urban accent,which sounded nothing like Robbie and just made his ventriloquist act even more impressive for what it was. And what it was was creepy as hell. It almost made it worse that this "Rex" absolutely refused to be called a puppet. He had threatened to make whoever did it first's life a complete and utter misery.

Unfortunately, the little redhead didn't quite register it.

"I like your puppet." She began to smile before she was silenced by said puppet.

Beck had a feeling that Cat and Rex weren't going to get on, no matter how awe-struck Robbie already looked. But then again, Robbie looked awestruck at pretty much every girl that walked past of him. Beck felt a little bit sorry for the awkward guy. He didn't look like he would ever get a girl. It was a curious feeling for Beck, having never had that feeling before. He did doubt that he would ever properly have that feeling, though; he had been told repeatedly that he was an amazing guy, and that any girl would be lucky to have him. It had mostly come from his older sister, but then again, it still counted. His sister was a good judge of character, even if she did have a bit of a soft spot for him. Okay, make that a massive soft spot. But they were family. She was perfectly allowed to have however big a soft spot as she wanted.

Beck didn't always know how much she did care, and usually Elle liked it like that.

And Beck, right now, was pretty much as shell-shocked as the rest of the class at the moment. He thought he knew what was going to happen, but nothing on Earth could have prepared him for this first improv lesson, as hard as he had tried. Sikowitz had started with exhausted marathon runners, but that was the more normal part of the lesson. He had gone from that to something that he liked to call 'Dead Bodies'. He literally called for people up and commanded them to die on queue. It was pretty spectacular; some of the deaths that had managed to take place. One managed to spontaneously combust, another got struck by lightning, and another's heart gave out, only to later come back as a zombie. Anybody who had been expecting this to be a normal lesson was severely shocked.

So it was a good thing that Jade West hadn't been expecting a normal lesson. In fact, after the first four years of HA Middle School, she was done with expecting anything in this entire school to be normal. That was a good thing because Jade West herself _was not normal. _Jade took a very special pride in not being normal, everything from the colourful streaks in her hair, to the eye make-up that she loved, and the fact she wasn't shy of wearing a little black… or a lot of black, for that matter. In fact, she had been branded the 'Goth' since she about… well, it was long enough ago that she couldn't quite remember when it was.

It was fine, though, she had always had a best friend to go through it with. She didn't anymore, but what did she care? She was Jade West and she was strong an independent. Jade didn't need anybody. She never had and never would.

Jade had closed up her walls tightly around her. This wasn't a new school for her and she knew the types of people that would be here. It wasn't the fun types of people; it was those stuck up rich girls with their preppy blond hair and make-up that just made her want to puke on a fairly regular basis. She wasn't really that interested in making friends here. She definitely wasn't looking for anything more. Maybe then, you could consider it a shame that she was going to find it.

Jade was currently sitting there, _in the front row_, and trying to avoid Sikowitz's gaze before he recognised her from her middle school. God forbid, he might ask her to demonstrate something. She still couldn't believe there had been no other seats in the entire classroom._ Well, that's just what you get for being so late, Jade._

It was even more annoying when, at a glance back around the room, she could see a guy lying across two of them. Instantly she hated him, and Jade didn't hate a lot of people. This was constantly misread by those that thought Jade was the _wrong type of girl_. Jade didn't hate many people because she really _didn't care _about an awful lot of people. It took effort to hate someone properly and Jade would never do anything in her life half-heartedly. She may hate a lot of _things,_ but that was honestly easy. When you hated a person, you had to put the time in. But despite all of this, from the first second she set eyes on Beck Oliver, although she didn't know it was him at the time, she absolutely detested him. He had slicked back hair, and a tan which, honest to God, made him look like Disney's Aladdin. Jade hated Disney.

She had been compared to Belle before. That was a while ago now. These days, Jade was far more often compared to the Beast. And to be honest, she was quite fond of being considered like that.

Jade couldn't describe her happiness when the bell finally rang as she dashed out of the room. Or at least tried to, before she hit the legs of Aladdin who was not only stealing another chair but lying right across the aisle, in what just seemed to be designed to irritate her.

"Move." Jade said. It wasn't a request or an order.

Beck lifted his head up and examined the girl in front of her. She had a huge snarl on her face, which, for some reason, made Beck want to smirk. She was dressed in black, from head to toe and was fairly obviously Gothic. She didn't look like she was willing to take any crap from anybody, least of all him. She was playing in with her necklace with one hand, though, and he watched it sway from side to side, almost mesmerised for a second. This girl didn't look that tough, but from the looks of those that knew better than him in the class, she fairly obviously was. It wasn't as if she was hideous, anyway, she just wasn't Beck's type of girl. It didn't occur to him to start hitting on her any more than it had to Cat when he had met her. Well, actually, with her he knew how much it would piss her off.

He was very tempted to see what she would do if he didn't move.

So Aladdin stayed there, not moving an inch.

Jade stared at him.

"You deaf? Move!" She called louder, attracting a fair amount of attention from the rest of the class. Jade didn't actually care as Aladdin just stared up at her with a smile on his face that Jade so wanted to wipe straight off. She was so tempted to do it that she could feel her hand creeping forward, and she pulled it back to her side reluctantly. She didn't want to be sent to the Principal's Office on the very first day of school, if only for her mother's sake.

Aladdin swung his head from side to side.

Jade stared.

How obnoxious could one guy be? He thought he deserved to sit in one chair and completely block the entrance. He was obviously doing it to aggravate her and to get her mad. Jade was slightly ashamed to admit that right now, it was working.

Beck knew he was winning. The girl wanted to get away from something and he was curious to see what it was. Plus, though he wasn't sure what it was, something about her which was different from what he normally saw. He wasn't sure why he kept taunting her; he was just interested to see what she did next. It was almost like an experiment, seeing if she'd eventually snap and hit him like she so obviously wanted to.

Jade snarled and bit her lip. She had to get out of this classroom now. She could feel eyes boring into the back of her head and she was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Sikowitz was paying no attention, so she didn't need to worry about him, but it was more the feeling of not letting Aladdin win. Jade was a competitive girl and she liked to win.

The one thing she couldn't stand was to _lose. _She avoided it as much as she possibly could, which was most of the time. Even if it was something as simple as a guy not moving to let her through it was still a defeat and it still matter to her. It was stupid, but it was Jade's way.

So she took a couple of steps back, glanced from left to right, and gave Aladdin a little wink. Jade ran for it and jumped, clearing the guy's legs with an inch to spare. Aladdin looked completely shocked and Jade was glad. If there was one thing that Jade West _was not_, it was predictable. She gave a mocking wave as she exited the classroom, only to find the whole class staring at something behind her head.

It was Sikowitz, sipping calmly from his coconut.

"Jade West, what do you think you're doing?" Most of her remaining classmates drew in a collective breath but Jade just smiled. She was used to Sikowitz and his crazy ways.

"Leaving," she smirked and Sikowitz nodded, and with that she was gone from the room scot free. She knew she wouldn't be quite as lucky next lesson, though, when he took advantage of her acting abilities.

Beck sat back on the chair, not having moved a muscle.

_Jade, _he thought, _I need to remember that._

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, about all the OCs... I KNOW! I know they can tend to blend into one, but don't worry, not all of these many OCs will be main characters, I'm not that mean. The jock's personalities seem to be pretty similar and that's unfortunate. But don't worry if you get them mixed up as long as you enjoy the story. I hope you do. And I hope you're happy now, this is the chapter that you've all been waiting for. The one where Beck meets Jade :) ... and the next chapter will be oc based, then massive amounts of Bade...<strong>

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	6. Partied

By the end of school that night the entirety of Hollywood Arts was talking about the Senior Party that night and who didn't quite make the invite list.

The Cheerleading team was obviously going to show up, and the Jocks had pretty much put the party together in the first place. In fact, most of the senior year was going, but that wasn't what the gossip was about. All the Sophomores and even a couple of Freshmen were anxiously waiting for Kelli, Sophie, Aurora, or Lyla to stop by their locker and give them their well-deserved invite. It was low notice, but that was how it worked, Kelli always liked to bring up the tension in these things.

You could hear the squeals echoing through the halls of the different students wondering what they were going to wear.

Honestly, Piper Knight and Ember Sayton didn't care in the slightest. Technically Piper had received an invite, but it really wasn't her thing. She had come to accept that her and Lyla were moving in different circles. They weren't exactly friends and there was really no reason to show up to a party where someone would undoubtedly spike the punch, if just plain alcohol hadn't already been provided, and somebody would almost certainly end up puking on the carpet.

Forgive her if she didn't think of that as her perfect night out.

And Ember didn't have an invite, not that it mattered to her. She wouldn't want to be anywhere near Aurora anyway, this was her gig and she wasn't going to crash it. The look on her face would be amazing to see, though. She could just imagine her and Piper walking in, dressed in black from head to toe walking into a room full of preppy cheerleaders. They'd probably be kicked out almost immediately; Aurora would make sure of that.

It would be a good laugh, but there wouldn't be an awful lot of point to it.

They had decided to just hang out at Piper's house instead. It would be about twice as fun anyway.

Marc and Asa had been given the job of setting up for the party. Quite frankly, both of them though that was completely and utterly ridiculous, considering they were in Jared's house in the first place. But what Jared said went, that was the rules in this place.

Jared had also decided to give them the pretty gruesome of kicking out Ava, Jared's little sister and making sure that she didn't return all night. She almost found the beer as well, which would have been awkward around Jared's parents.

It had been Rev who had got the alcohol, courtesy of his older brother, who had been willing to oblige him anything to make him look stupid while drunk.

They were just about done when the rest of the group burst into the house.

"Hey!" Kelli called, and the two glanced up, giving a little nod to acknowledge her presence.

"The room looks great." Faye remarked, sitting down on the sofa as Rev took his rightful place next to her. And it was true, the place did look great. Marc and Asa had managed to do their job properly. There was a massive dance floor set up and drinks on the coffee table. The music was blasting out across the room and most of them couldn't wait for the first party of the year to start.

Half an hour later, the entire basement was completely packed full of partying teenagers.

The younger cheerleaders were sitting in the corner, gossiping about one couple or another. The boys were, wouldn't you have guessed it, playing beer pong with any girls they could possibly rope in. The room in general was an absolute mess.

Faye was leaning back against the wall, taking another sip from her drink and trying to ignore the fact that she would now have a massive hangover on the second day back at school.

_Damn you Jared for throwing that party of the year_, she screamed in her head. She didn't know where Rev was, but she hoped that he wasn't anywhere throwing up, that would not be pleasant. Normally Rev wouldn't leave her side.

She heard a loud thump besides her and glanced up to her right, hoping that it was Rev so she could quit worrying about her boyfriend.

It wasn't.

She looked up to see the closest thing she had to a best friend slump down against the wall, her normally impeccable wavy brown hair scattered all over the place and her mascara smudged. Normally Caitlin was pretty, but tonight she was a mess. Faye shuddered at the thought of what she herself probably looked like. It could not be pretty.

"Where are the boys?" she asked, sipping a little bit more of her own drink, which, from what Faye could smell off it, seemed like pure vodka.

Caitlin Morales wasn't exactly the most important cheerleader ever, but she was willing to wait her turn. She was only a junior, although older than most, having just turned seventeen. She knew she wasn't going to be informed of every little thing but tried to make sure she knew it anyway. She was a nice, sweet girl, just fairly ambitious, and rigid in what she had. She was what limited the amount of Junior girls in the squad, and Caitlin was definitely set to be Captain next year.

That is, if it wasn't for Faye. So given how the popular crowd seemed to work, it didn't make sense that they were friends. But they were… it wasn't just hatred masquerading as friendship, or cheerleaders trying to keep their enemies close to keep an eye on them, like the case of Sophie and Kelli; it was pure friendship, almost as close as sisterhood.

In fact, sometimes Faye felt closer to Cait than she did to her own sister, Abby. They had been close since they both joined the squad in Freshman year and sometimes Caitlin was the only thing that kept Faye from leaving it.

The Squad wasn't always Faye's favourite place to be. It was rigid and tight, and you weren't allowed to be friends with anybody outside of the circle. Apparently Abby had made a friend on her first day, someone called Jade? And then Kelli had come to her and told her to warn Abby that if this continued, Abby would not be allowed on the team.

Personally, this was just completely ridiculous. But that was how Kelli wanted it to be done, and Kelli always got her way.

In response to Caitlin's original question, Faye sighed.

"What do you mean? They're over there." Faye said, gesturing to the drunk guys playing beer pong.

"_Yes, because those are __obviously the guys I meant._" Caitlin replied, an almost sarcastic tone in her voice. Leave it to Cait to be sarcastic when she was completely drunk. "That's Jonny and Harry over there." She pointed to the guys who were, by now, falling over with laughter. "Where's Jared, and Marc, and Arth, and Asa, and even your boyfriend, Rev." She finished with a little sly smirk on her face.

Faye thought about that for a second before realising that all of the Senior _girls _had gone, too. There was no Kelli with her commanding voice, or Sophie trying to get everybody in the party to love her, or even Elle in the corner, always determined to not get wasted, until she inevitably did.

The only person they could spot that they actually recognised was Aurora, making out with some guy from Northridge in the corner of the room, and she wasn't going to be any help.

At this stage of the night, it was fairly likely that she wouldn't even be able to remember her own name.

Faye felt a buzz in her pocket quickly, and she picked up her phone, relieved to find that it was Rev. It wasn't much, just three little words… no, not those three little words, it simply said, 'Meet me outside'.

Currently, Revelin Knight was outside lying on the ground and clutching his head. In front of him was the guy that most of the school hated with a passion, the football team player at the very highest point of the social pyramid

Jay Johnson was standing in front of the Hollywood Arts football team, holding Rev's phone in his hands.

Normally, one of them would have pummelled them to the ground already for daring to wait until Rev came out alone to pounce on him. Everybody there knew that it was just a dirty little trick to try and make it so they lost their Guard for next week's game.

The only problem was he had the entirety of St. George's football team behind him. And let's just say that St George's team wasn't chosen on skill, it was chosen on pure muscle.

It definitely wasn't chosen on looks, either, or there would be no way that Jay would have been made Captain of it. He was ginger, and not that almost auburn colour that Piper had been once upon a time, but he was bright ginger, so ginger you wouldn't be able to miss it from all the way across the room.

He had this horrible upturned nose with freckles scattered across it as well, and looked like a snob before a single word came out of his mouth. The only almost redeeming feature that he had were his deep blue eyes, which looked so deep that you could fall right into them.

"So Revvy-boy, finally got yourself a girlfriend then, have you?" he whispered as he placed his foot on Rev's back and pushed him further down into the ground. "Maybe she should join us."

"Don't you dare ." The words slipped out of Rev's mouth before he could stop them, and immediately he felt extra pressure on his back once more. He fought against the temptation to scream and Asa was holding Arth back, knowing that it would be hard for any of them to play next week if they got beaten up by St George's. And it was important that they beat St. George's, if only for their own sanity. They had been rival schools for as long as any one of them could remember, and, as anyone can probably see, they did _not_ get along.

In a couple of minutes, Faye and Caitlin burst through the doors to the outside and then glanced from side to side, before looking at each other, confused.

The sight of her boyfriend lying on the ground in pain may have tipped Faye off a little bit, though, and immediately she turned to go back inside, only to find the door blocked by a St. George's player.

They were fairly obviously expecting a fight tonight, and had chosen a time when HA was not only out-numbered but drunk, and, to top it all, had managed to make certain that they had leverage.

Kelli was currently shivering under Jared's arm as Elle and Sophie stood solemnly behind Asa and Marc.

"So this is your girlfriend, then, Revvy-boy?" Jay sneered as he examined Faye, curling his mouth upwards as he liked what he saw. "She's hot."

Rev gave out another cry, this time not one of pain, but of anger. Arth walked over to the two Juniors caught up in the middle and led them to the rest of the group. Faye was shivering and looked distraught, like she was about to cry.

Arth wished he could tell her that nothing like this had ever happened before, and that it would never happen again, but he didn't feel like lying at the moment.

"Don't talk about her that way." He settled for threatening Jay instead, given that Rev was pretty much incapable of doing that at the moment.

"Yeah, I guess she's taken." Jay sneered, his eyes moving back to the Seniors and lingering on Sophie for a moment before moving on to Elle. "What about her, then?" He asked, and his eyes darted from her to Jared and Kelli. "I thought she was your girl, Jared."

"That was a long time ago." Jared whispered as Kelli looked shocked to comprehend this information. It made sense, after all, when Jared and Elle, or Lyla, as he had known her as then, had been dating, Kelli wouldn't have had a clue who on Earth Lyla Oliver was.

"Look, this is enough." Lyla spoke quickly. "Just let Rev up. If you think you can settle all of this out here, then you're a coward. You're just too scared to face them on an even playing field. You're scared of what they might do to you. Let us go back inside and leave; there is no reason for you to be here."

Jay threw back his head and laughed. "There is no reason, apart from the fact that I want to, and I'm enjoying myself. So you know what, I think I might just place a little more pressure on your friends back until I hear a little… crunch."

Suddenly the doors flew open, and a face that somehow Elle recognised appeared at the door.

But the weird thing was, though, it wasn't Elle that recognized it, it was that little bit inside of her that was still Lyla recognising a blast from the past.

"Look guys, you can't fight here. There are kids inside and someone will end up getting hurt. I understand you want to have your little fight to prove who's the biggest toughest guy, but do it on the field. Otherwise I have a little number here that I might want to use, and that number happens to be the same one that could get you arrested." The voice belonging to the face bellowed out across the crowd.

The St. George boys glanced at each other, before slowly backing away.

Jay removed his foot from Rev's back and slowly, keeping his eyes focused on Jay, Rev stood up, groaning slightly.

"This isn't over." Jay called as they disappeared slowly, out of sight.

Then the entire group's attention turned back to the figure.

"Thanks, man," Jared called out to the mysterious stranger.

The stranger laughed. "I didn't do it for you. I did it for Lyla."

* * *

><p><strong><em>Thanks to reviewers:<em>**

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	7. Kissed

Jade still wasn't quite sure how she had managed to make a friend within the day. She was a cheerleader as well. It was a very weird feeling. But Abby wasn't exactly the stereotypical cheerleader. Partly the reason why being friends with her was so good was because apparently she had been told she couldn't.

It was so ridiculous. What was even more ridiculous, though, was that fact that she seemed to be attracting more friends by the second. Abby had a couple of friends of her own, and Jade suddenly even had Seniors routing for her.

Piper Knight had fallen in love with the Freshman girl who had streaks in her hair and wore all black almost immediately, especially as she told the Freshman Cheerleaders where they should go. It was a very fun sight.

So Jade, for the first time in her life, actually felt popular. She may not have been completely and utterly preppy and that type of popular. But she was popular in her own right.

In fact, Abby was round at Jade's house right now. It was almost funny how Jade's Mom had reacted when she saw her round. Abby didn't look like the type of girl that Jade would be friends with, from the bleached blond hair and the blue eyes to the fact that her sister was one of the two in line to be top of the school next year. But Jade had learned a long time ago not to judge a book by its cover. People had been doing that to Jade for long enough. She was quite cool, actually.

Abby started at Jade's pitch black room, and for a second her eyes were caught on the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling.

"Wow, this is sick." Abby smiled and Jade looked back to her. It was a weird feeling to have a friend. Was it sad that Jade had actually thought that? Jade had never placed a big importance on friendship before.

"I know." Jade smirked as Abby sat down on Jade's pitch black bed. Jade knew she shouldn't say what she was about to say, but the words slipped out of her lips anyway. "Why are you here?"

Abby shrugged. The truth was, she didn't really know why she at Jade's house in the first place. She had just decided to do it, and she generally did what she wanted to do. Jade was what Abby wanted to be anyway. She had the guts to be herself and to not care in the slightest what people thought about her, while Abby was being coerced into being a cheerleader for the sake of popularity and for the sake of her older sister. Faye would just about die of embarrassment if Abby behaved the way Jade did.

"I wanted to." Abby smiled "What are we doing tonight, anyway?"

Jade looked at her in confusion. Jade had no idea in the slightest.

"I have this, if it helps…" Abby drew out a little pink invite from her pocket, something that just about every girl in their year had been praying for; Abby didn't even really want it.

Jade stared at it for a second, confused at why they would want to go to the party for all the popular people.

"Um… why would that…? Actually…" A smile grew on Jade's face "Actually, crashing the Senior party seems fun." She smirked again.

Abby laughed at Jade's idea, proud of how devious her new friend was. "How do we get one for you, though."

Jade hesitated, puzzled for a second, before an idea popped into her head quickly "How about we give Piper a call?"

* * *

><p>The party was in pretty full swing, and most of the Seniors had completely disappeared a while ago, so Beck guessed that something was happening. He didn't really care that much, but he knew how much his popularity was spiking by just being at this party.<p>

At the moment, as his eyes scanned the party, he could only see about five Freshmen, mostly girls.

He was just about right, Candice Wilson, Olivia Levitt and Tabitha Clover were sitting there discussing how much they were excited about this. And that was pretty much it. Right now, Beck didn't have much of a clue who they were, although he seemed to be the only one that didn't.

The girls were laughing in anticipation of the popularity they would achieve the next morning. They were pretty much right, but it still seemed superficial as hell. Or at least that was what André Harris thought of the situation. He was sitting there strumming a tune on the table, and wondering why he'd) bugged a friend to get him an invite to this thing in the first place. He brushed his dark brown dreadlocks out of his face and groaned as they began to move on to who was the cutest boy in school. At the words 'drop dead gorgeous', he decided that enough truly was enough, and stood up from where Candice, Tabi, and Livvy were laughing. He examined the people around him, looking for someone that could maybe be in his year, but the problem was that he was judging almost entirely on height. Height doesn't always work in that situation, but he could pretty much cross out the guys who were six foot five and chatting up every girl in sight.

Finally he spotted someone who looked about as alone as he was currently.

Beck looked up to see a dark skinned boy with his dreadlocks approaching him. "Hey…" Beck smiled at him.

André started to talk to him, but as hard as he tried to listen, his eye was caught to the sight of a girl entering. He could swear he recognised the girl entering, but if he was right, she should not be here.

It was the girl that he could have sworn he had seen yesterday in the classroom… Jade. She had been flying in and out of his head for a while. She definitely shouldn't be here right now. She even looked abnormal, and he could see eyes drifting over to look at her. He stared at her, almost fascinated with her appearance. Slowly he drifted up and almost before he could stop himself he was walking across the room to Jade.

Jade gave a glance to Abby.

"Do you really think we should be here?" Abby asked nervously. "If we get thrown out, then my sister is absolutely going to murder me."

"Who cares." Jade remarked and Abby looked at her like she was totally and completely nuts.

"My sister does, Kelli, does…"

"And..."

"Jade… please." Even though Jade had only known her new friend for a day, she could feel her pulling at her heartstrings.

"Abby, it's fine." Jade protested. "We're not going to get thrown out."

At that moment, just at the very worst time possible, a Senior boy walked by. They could hear snatches of a conversation thrown past their ears.

"It looks like the garbage has already snuck in… time to take out the trash, then."

Abby looked at Jade with a pleading eye. "Let's get out of here." Abby pleaded, despite the fact it was pretty much her idea to do it in the first place. Okay, maybe it wasn't, but Jade couldn't believe her new friend was backing out already. "At least try to fit in…"

Beck had just been standing there for while listening to the sound of their conversation. He didn't quite know why, but he didn't seem to be able to pull himself away.

"I know a way you can fit in." Beck commented, making Jade turn around.

She was surprised to find it was Aladdin from yesterday. She was hoping that she wouldn't have to see him for a while. She really wasn't a fan of Aladdin so far. In fact, her hatred of him hadn't really decreased in the time they hadn't seen each other. In fact, it was slightly depressing seeing him once more.

Beck didn't know what made him say the next thing he said.

"You can dance with me…" Jade felt her jaw drop at what he just said, and she suddenly tried to think of some excuse not to. She could feel Abby's eyes boring into her and silently begging her not to make her sister hate her for the rest of her life.

"No." Jade said, simply and forcefully.

Aladdin raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Please." he asked, and Jade almost felt sick at the amount of charm he was layering on in his voice.

Abby gave her a little shove, and before Jade could protest anymore, Aladdin's arm was around her waist and he was dragging her out onto the dance floor.

Jade started at the incredibly attractive Freshman in front of her. Somehow she had just assumed that the hatred she felt for him was mutual. But apparently it wasn't, which was a huge surprise for her. Just as the couple entered the dance floor, a song came on and Jade groaned as Beck put his arm around her waist.

"So who are you, anyway?" Jade asked quietly, and for once her voice didn't sound harsh and shrill, like she was trying to shout but it sounded calm, and almost… dare Beck think it, pretty. He had to laugh, though, at the fact that Jade still didn't know his name.

"Beck. I'm Beck Oliver."

Slowly Jade registered the name in her head, making sure that she wouldn't forget it. It sure beat having to refer to him in her head as Aladdin.

"And you are…?" Beck smiled, although he already knew the answer in his mind.

"Jade… I'm just Jade." she said, going back to her previous harsher tone. For a moment, there was just silence as they stared into each other's eyes. Beck knew that this girl was unlike the rest. He knew that this girl was honestly something very special. He also knew from the look in her eyes that she wanted to get out of it as soon as she possibly could.

It hurt ever so slightly.

"Okay then, 'Just Jade'." Jade looked at him as if she wanted to hit him. At that moment, she really did. Beck started to laugh quietly.

"Oh yeah, that's fun. And who introduces themselves with their full name anyway?" Jade snarled, annoyed that he was laughing at her. She was supposed to be laughing at him, not the other way around. Jade West did not like to be laughed at.

"I do." Beck smiled, he wasn't even aware that Jade had taken offence. He was too caught up just looking at her. A small smile formed on his lips and for a moment they both just stood there, swaying to the music.

"Well, I don't."

"I can see that, 'Just Jade'."

"Don't call me that." Jade muttered forcefully. Beck's smile grew as he looked at her discomfort. Jade really couldn't take a joke.

"What should I call you then, Jadelyn?" Beck taunted and he saw Jade's mouth drop open a little bit as she tried to register that he knew her full name.

"How…?" Jade wondered, finding it difficult to talk with her mouth open.

"Let's just say I have my sources." Beck goaded. He wasn't quite sure why he had gone to Sikowitz to ask for information on the new girl, but something had almost possessed him to do it. He was glad that he had, though, if only for that look that was currently gracing Jade's beetroot red face.

"Um…" Jade didn't know what to say. That was a new feeling for her.

And Beck was mesmerized by her. He didn't know what she was doing to him, but he found himself leaning in closer and closer to this girl that he barely knew in the slightest.

"So tell me about yourself, _Jade_." Beck gave in and started to call her actually by her own name for a moment.

"Well." She looked down at her outfit for a second. "I like black, and I don't like you." Jade was being perfectly honest, at that moment. She really didn't like this obnoxious, in her face kind of guy. They were in a competition, and right now, it looked like he was winning. If Beck was winning then that meant that Jade was losing, and Jade West never lost.

Beck simply laughed at Jade's insults and moved on. "Well, I like black, too, and I'm enjoying dancing with you."

"That's it, this dance is over."

"No" Beck pulled her back. "I'm enjoying dancing with the most beautiful girl in the room."

Jade raised one eyebrow at his comment. "Don't patronise me." she ordered, and Beck looked a little taken aback. He had partly said it, because he wanted to see if he could charm even her, but part of it was true.

"I wasn't." He whispered so quietly that only Jade could hear and for a second they both stood there, just staring into each other's eyes.

And suddenly as if by magic, he found himself kissing her.

_**YAY! Bade! Bade FTW!**_

_**Bade is officially each-others first kiss. That is, unless I decide otherwise… I might just be mean. And I wonder how Jade will react… hmm… Read the next chapter to find out.**_

_**As always, I love my reviews, but I can't be bothered to list you all, sorry.**_

_**See you next time.**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Second Update: Aparently Chapter Seven didn't go through for some people, so I've put it up again, I hope that helps.<strong>_


	8. Remembered

"I did it for Lyla." An Australian accent rang out across the crowd.

Elle felt her heart stop as she realised exactly who that guy was. It was the hair that was a giveaway because that guy was, to put it frankly, ginger. He was nowhere near as ginger as he had used to be but Elle had memories of him when he was impossible to miss in the crowded room. Ironically enough, that had been how all of them became friends in the first place. He and Piper bonded in the beginning because of how ginger they both were. It was a very strange friendship and it didn't exactly get any more normal once Elle had moved here in the third grade. Of course, Piper had always hated her hair so that was gone in a flash. She had been nicknamed Pippi Longstocking long enough and by High School was perfectly ready to move on.

But that guy still looked the way he did when he had left at the end of Middle School. That guy used to be her best friend, but she hadn't seen him in years. She couldn't believe he still remembered her.

But she wasn't the same person anymore.

If Joey Strelling had known what she was thinking, then he would have seconded that opinion. He could barely recognise her now. Lyla had been this cute little girl with brown hair, glasses and she even had freckles. The only thing that was remotely the same about her now was the freckles. She had three little ones on her nose, in completely random directions. It said quite a lot about their friendship that Joey was able to remember that about her.

But for a second, Joey was scared that he had got the wrong person. For one, pretty much everybody in that crowd was staring at him as if he was a total freak. And secondly, although he could still see little bits of Lyla, this girl was blonde, perky, and wearing a fairly short skirt. Joey didn't think that Lyla actually owned a skirt. And if he didn't know better then he could have sworn she was wearing fake tan. Lyla had a tan that most people would kill for in her natural skin tone. Piper had always been jealous of her for that. There was one little thing in his mind telling him that it was the right girl, though. She had this look in her eyes which showed him she knew exactly who he was. That was the only thing that was stopping him from getting up and running away.

Elle was struggling to breathe. She couldn't believe he was here. She looked up and scanned the area trying to find something else to focus on. In the end she settled for fixing her eyes at the leaving St. George's. The moment Jay and his 'posse' disappeared from sight, Asa rushed over to help Rev off the ground.

Jared was still looking at Joey, confused.

"And Lyla is…?" Arth asked. Elle's eyes flicked over to Jared's face just to double check if there was any recognition in his eyes of her old name. There was nothing that could possibly indicate he knew.

"Lyla Oliver," At Joey's comment, all eyes swivelled around to look at her. Joey stared at them in amazement, wondering how they had managed not to know her name.

"Um… Did I miss something?" Caitlin asked quietly. She was only a Junior but she thought she knew enough about the school not to mistake someone's name.

"No." Elle said quickly.

"What?" Joey protested.

"I'm not Lyla,"

"You're not…" Joey was too confused to put this feeling into words right now. "But you've been Lyla for seventeen years now."

Elle's eyes widened and her eyes flickered between her and Joey. "Shut up." she hissed through her teeth.

Kelli, annoyed that she had been left out the conversation for so long, spoke up. "Um… You're obviously new here. That is Elle Oliver."

Joey's jaw dropped open and Elle could almost see the disappointment in his eyes. This wasn't fair. He wasn't allowed to come back after two years in Australia and judge her.

Sophie obviously decided that if Kelli had spoken, then she had to speak too. She had pretty much been determined since the first day of freshman year that Kelli was never going to beat her at anything. "Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm… Joey… Just Joey." Joey said reluctantly. Right now he just wanted to run away and never come back.

"Marc, Arth, Kelli, Sophie, Caitlin," Jared explained, pointing to each one in turn. "That's Faye and Asa picking Rev up off the floor. And I'm Jared" he said, pointing to himself.

"Wait, what!" Elle was having an 'Oh shit' moment in her head. Joey had remembered who Jared was. This was not a good thing.

Joey himself couldn't quite believe it. That was the guy who had made Lyla's life a living hell. He dumped her and broke her heart, and she had cried for years. And now she was just standing with him in a group as if the whole thing meant nothing. It literally made him sick to his stomach.

"I said I'm Jared."

"Jared who…?" Joey snarled, making Jared almost take a step back from him, confused about what exactly he had done wrong.

"Jared Rose… Well, you obviously don't spend enough time in school." Joey raised one eyebrow at him. He was caught in between being sarcastic to such stupidity or the possibility of punching the dick's face off. He couldn't believe that all that anger was still there after such a long time, but it was. He still though of Jared Rose as the guy who got every girl he wanted, even the one Joey himself had been head over heels in love with. And then, just to make things worse he broke her heart. He had hated Jared even when him and Lyla had been dating and definitely still hated him now.

"I don't even go to Hollywood Arts, asshole. I'm at St. George's." Suddenly, the atmosphere turned icy cold. Joey though it was all perfectly ridiculous. Jay and Joey may go to the same school but that didn't mean they were mates. It didn't mean they were anything alike in the slightest.

But Jared though he understood why this guy seemed to hate him so much. It all made sense. Why would anybody from HA dislike _Jared Rose?_ Jared Rose was popular, every guy wanted to be him and every girl wanted to date him. Jared looked behind him, giving the group a meaningful look, and without another word, all of them just got up and walked straight past Joey back inside.

Even Rev limped along, despite the pain in his back.

Lyla was the only one that stayed.

Elle didn't know why she was still standing here, even when Faye shot her a look as she left the room.

"Ly, what happened to you?" Joey asked in a quiet voice, wondering where that little fifteen year old had gone to. Elle shook her head, she couldn't deal with this. She couldn't deal with all those memories surfacing. That was a different time, with a different girl. Lyla wanted to sit down with him and chat for hours, catching up, but Elle knew that she couldn't do that.

"It's Elle"was all she said as she moved past him and finally went back inside.

"It's not Elle!" Joey called back after her. "Your full name is Eliza Isabella Oliver and you always hated your first name. That's why you liked Lyla, no one could tell what the original was, and you always said it was unique. That was the reason you weren't L-I-L-A instead. Your name is Lyla Oliver and it will always be, no matter how hard you try to change that." Joey shouted and her, not knowing if she had even heard him or not.

In truth, Lyla had heard him. Elle was trying her hardest to ignore him. Either way, she was still standing right next to the door trying to keep herself calm. She heard footsteps behind her in the corridor and she knew she had to move, or he'd come out eventually. And all she wanted was for him to get away from here without talking to her again.

She walked on, back into the centre of the party, glancing for a second at the Seniors who didn't seem to be affected at all by what had just happened. Elle, on the other hand, felt sick to her stomach. She glanced around for her little brother, but he was nowhere to be seen.

She paced around the kitchen until she caught a glimpse of hair that somehow she recognised and came back into the hall.

She did not expect to see what she saw. She would never have expected to see what she was.

There was her little brother, kissing a girl. That wouldn't have shocked her so much, he was bound to get a girlfriend eventually at Hollywood Arts, but it was the type of girl that he was kissing which was the problem. Even from where she was standing she could see that this girl wasn't Beck's type.

This girl did not suit him at all, right down to the streaks in hair. For one thing she was covered in black and had a _piercing_. She had a damn piercing.

"Beck!" Lyla screamed across the room and Beck's eyes drifted to hers.

Beck and Jade sprung apart. Jade didn't know what to think right then. She wanted to hit Beck right then and there. That obnoxious, self-centred jerk had just stolen her first kiss. But before she could attack him and make him pay, Beck was being dragged out of the room by one ear.

This really wasn't what Elle needed right now. She had trusted her brother not to act like an idiot on his first day of school. Obviously she had placed far too much trust in Beck. That would have to be re-arranged. She would fix this tomorrow, and she knew exactly how.

Elle dragged Beck to the car as quickly as she could and pushed him into the car.

"We are going home!" Elle screamed as she slid into the driver's seat.

Beck didn't know why Ly was so pissed. Of course, he had no idea what had happened tonight. He had no idea why his older sister dragged him into a car and wouldn't let him leave. But in moments like that he had learn just to shut up and let her do whatever she wanted. There wasn't an awful lot of point in protesting. Beck almost said something when she kicked him out on the curb outside of her house, but the second Beck was out of the car on his ass, Lyla had already driven off into the distance.

You see, Elle Oliver wanted to go straight back home and forget all about this. But Lyla, Lyla wanted to remember. Lyla wanted to remember all those things that she tried to forget and wanted to have fun again. Lyla wanted to see her best friend again.

And for once, Lyla was actually winning.

It was at that moment that both Lyla and Elle realised that they were a very screwed up person.

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><p><em><strong>Okay, Chapter Seven... hope you liked it. I'm sorry this one was so OC centred, but I hope you didn't mind too much. There's more on Jade's reactions to the kiss next chapter and in the next three chapters I've got a lot of Bade planned.<strong>_

_**Love the reviews...**_

_**Oh, and GemiiniiBaby, you are very observant... that's just me not correcting my work after my Beta's done with it properly. Oh and since I've forgotten to do it until now... I have to thank livvylovesyou for being such an amazing Beta.**_

_**See you next Friday...**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_


	9. Angered

Jade West wasn't quite sure what to do. She would have started a fight immediately, but the subject of her distaste had disappeared without a shot. She almost wanted to be the one that was pulling him away by his ear so she could teach him some manners. She hadn't even wanted to dance with him in the first place, and he had the guts to kiss her.

He had been her first kiss. It wasn't fair how Beck was her first kiss. He was… he was just too despicable to describe. She couldn't even attempt it without making a complete fool of herself and making him seem better than he actually was.

To say Jade West wasn't pleased at that moment would be the understatement of the century.

Jade turned her head to try and spot Abby, but she had quickly managed to disappear from sight. She couldn't spot her anywhere in the crowd. She pushed her way through the swarm of people calling out her name, but still there was no response. Jade wasn't sure why she cared that much. She had only known this girl for a day. It wasn't like they had been best friends since the day they were born. Jade could catch a bus home, and she knew that Abby could do that too.

All the same, she called out one last time, "Abby Maxton, get your butt over here!" She swore she could almost hear crickets chirping in the silence. Well, apart from the blaring loud music and the noise of people shouting, that it.

But no Abby anywhere…

With a sigh, Jade decided that there was absolutely no point in being at this party. She could say truthfully that she crashed it now… although even if she hadn't, she would have been saying it anyway. She walked to the exit, taking one more look over her shoulder before she headed out into the open air.

The cold air (well, cold for Los Angeles) hit her and suddenly she was shivering. She picked up her pace slightly and headed for the nearest bus stop.

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><p>Piper almost couldn't believe it when she caught the glimpse of a shadow going past her house. There wasn't exactly an amazing view out of the front window, but she could have sworn that it was someone she hadn't seen around here in a long time. It was too late for someone to normally be coming around, anyway. Ember had decided to go back to her house; apparently Aurora had some dirt on her that she would have shared if Ember didn't cover for her.<p>

Piper had been tempted to keep her at her house for as long as she possibly could just to see what that was. There wasn't an awful lot that embarrassed Em, so whatever it was; Piper knew it had to be good.

She reluctantly dragged herself off the couch and headed over to the doorbell. It was relief to her that the doorbell had only gone once. It was only audible from the inside and there was a tendency from those who didn't know any better to just hold down the doorbell until somebody finally came to the door.

Lyla tried to calm her breath as she stood outside the door and apprehensively pressed the doorbell. She had to hold herself off from pressing it over and over again, but she knew that it was something that really annoyed her old best friend. Once upon a time she would have hit it again just to see Piper's annoyance once she finally answered the door. But she kind of wanted to be on Piper's good side just this once.

She didn't know how she was going to react, anyway. Lyla had a sneaky suspicion that it would _not _be a good idea to provoke her. After what seemed like an eternity, a face appeared through the glass in the door. Even before Piper opened the door Lyla could register the shock in her eyes.

It wasn't just that it was Ly back again, just after Piper had finally accepted the fact that their friendship was pretty much over. It was combined with the fact that, right now, she would have been surprised if _anybody _had showed up at her door, and also that the _raging _Senior party that _everybody_ had been talking about was currently going on just about now. She would have expected that Ly would have been there instead, given that she was far too cool now to be seen with her old best friend.

They both stood there for a second just staring at each other through the door before Piper opened the door.

"Lyla?" Piper asked, and surprising Lyla didn't feel the normal wince she did when anybody mentioned her old name.

"Pippi," Lyla remarked back, and Piper _un_surprisingly did feel the normal wince at her old memories. That one school play would haunt her for ever. Who would have thought that being cast as Pippi Longstocking in the school play that made her so happy at the time would have given her a nickname for years? It didn't help that she was very, very ginger at the time, her nickname used to be Pip anyway, and guess what, her Mom used to plait her hair.

"What are you doing here?" 'Pippi' stared at her.

"I need to talk to you…" Lyla stuttered.

"And what happens if I don't want to talk to you?" Honestly, Piper did want to talk to her again. She missed her old best friend and she wanted her back. She just didn't want everything to go back to normal and not have Ly even realise that she had hurt her throughout all of these years. It would be so stereotypical for Lyla not to notice, given how self-centred she was these days.

At that point, Lyla was very glad about her emergency stash of food she had in the back of the car, just for moments like this.

"I've got coke and chocolate." At that point Piper opened the door a little more and Lyla walked inside with a smile.

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><p>Beck was sitting in his bedroom, chucking a tennis ball against the wall. He was still puzzled about why the thought of <em>that girl<em> just wouldn't leave his mind. Why wouldn't that dark, gothic little she-demon just go the hell away?

He knew he should go to sleep, considering how wrecked he had been this morning. There seemed to be something ingrained in every teenagers mind that it was fiercely wrong to try and get to sleep before eleven, or to actually get to sleep before midnight. Beck knew that the coffee in his hand wasn't helping, but it didn't matter. He had already made an attempt to fall asleep.

It didn't work. It didn't seem like there was a shot in hell of it actually working. Jade West just wouldn't leave Beck's brain.

To be honest, even though Jade was home by now, she couldn't stop thing about Beck either. It was for a bit of a different reason, though, (semicolon) while Beck kept thinking of that beautiful girl, Jade was thinking about that miserable, horrible boy. That wasn't the bad thing, though. It was the fact that Beck knew it.

It was a bit of a surreal feeling for Beck. All through Middle School, he had almost just had to tell someone he liked them and then they would be all over him. He may not have even been interested in girls for a very long time, but he had never once had a girl reject him. He was normally far too busy rejecting girls, at least for the last year and a half, that is. But the thing about this girl is(was) that she didn't know anything about him, just like the rest of them, and already she hated him.

He knew that it wasn't fair for her to judge him, although nothing seemed to wake him up and to let him know that _he _had judged _her. _He was completely oblivious to how hypocritical he was and instead decided to believe that he was the perfect one, remaining utterly confused why Jade couldn't see that like the rest of them. You couldn't exactly say that it was Beck's fault that he believed that, the thought had been ingrained in him for a long time.

For a moment Beck got up and walked to the Yellow Pages, hoping that people did still bother to actually put their name in the phonebook. It wasn't as if he had her mobile number, if he had, he knew that right then he would have called it.

There were three Wests in the phonebook and Beck would have rung up all three, but there were a couple problems. The first was that it was late and Jade would probably be asleep by now, (although for that matter Jade seemed like the type to stay up later than he ever would), and secondly, if Jade's family were anything like Jade, there was no way they would ever put there number in a phonebook. And that was before you mentioned the fact if he did call up Jade, she wouldn't want to talk, or she'd just think that he was some crazy stalker. There was also the matter that Beck was scared.

In the end, over all of that, it was the fact that Beck was scared that prevented him from picking up the phone.

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><p>Lyla and Piper were now sitting opposite each other on the couch, both of them keeping eye contact as if they were actually afraid to break it. There was dish of chocolate in the middle and Lyla was reaching to take some for once, instead of thinking about the calories that she'd get the next morning.<p>

Trying to be as nonchalant as she possibly could, Lyla brought up the topic that had been on her mind ever since she came over.

"So Joey's back…" Lyla whispered, and Piper's face was, for one moment, an expression of pure shock. If it their relationship was like it was two years ago, then Lyla knew she would not have been able to resist the temptation to laugh out loud. But it wasn't… so she could resist it after all.

"What? And you know that how…?" Piper screamed in astonishment.

"Because he showed up at the party"

"Oh, yeah, the party of the year, on the very first day back… Was it fun?"

"Apart from the St. George's ambush and Joey appearing out of the blue…" Lyla sighed in response and realised that she hadn't even noticed that Piper showed up. In fact, Piper never showed up anymore, she didn't even have memories of her at her last birthday party.

"So is that why you're here then?" Piper said, a spiteful tone in her voice now. "Because the one guy that never noticed Elle Oliver is back and suddenly you're looking for inside information."

"No! I'm here because… " Lyla trailed off. "I'm here because I miss you."

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><p><strong><em>Hello, I'm not dead, I just missed a week. I'm sorry about that. But it shouldn't happen again. Oh, and if any of you watch the show Big Time Rush you should definitely check out a friend of mine (and a really talented author)'s story, Big Time Spies (by BellaRosa17)<em>**

**_Okay then, see you next Friday._**

**_The Name Is A Lie, As Is The cake_**

**_:)_**


	10. Pranked

The next day Lyla had almost disappeared, and Elle was back once more. Piper was sad, but she knew having her old best friend back wouldn't last for all that long. And Piper knew she hadn't completely evaporated for ever. It was just taking time.

Elle walked into school, almost feeling back to her old self. She was feeling so much freer than she had been last night, it almost wasn't believable. But she was glad to be back… sort of, at least. She had decided that one guy she hadn't seen in years wasn't going to mess her up that much. She was stronger than that and she knew it. She wasn't going to bow down her head and turn back into how she used to be.

She didn't know whether this was a challenge she was supposed to overcome, or a gift to allow her to get back a sweet, innocent girl who actually cared properly about her friends. If the second one was the true option, Elle had no idea what she would do, except for screaming in frustration. She had decided to opt for the former, at least that way she wouldn't explode, even if there was a slight feeling of guilt in her gut.

She was back to her normal life, and was focusing on the one thing that was simple for her to fix, that simple matter of whose lips her brother's had been on last night. It wasn't that difficult, he was a fourteen year old boy. He simply didn't know any better, so it was her job to find him someone.

She turned the corner to where she was supposed to meet three freshmen, and for once felt almost embarrassed about what she was going to do. It just didn't quite sit well in her stomach.

Candi, Livi and Tabi were sitting there, chatting around the corner. Between the three of them, they seemed like what should be the 'Perfect Girl' for Beck. They all had straight As, were already super popular on the second day, and had made the cheerleading team. Even their names sounded perfect, as if it was a rule that all the preppy girls name's had to end in 'i'. Thinking about Kelli and Sophi(e), she wondered if they had started a trend. She almost started to laugh as she thought about becoming Elli.

This was one thing that Lyla knew that she could do, and she knew that she could definitely do it well. She could definitely be a matchmaker.

She surveyed the three girls quickly, as they looked at her with, frankly, terrified glances. It was a difficult job, which girl whose dreams she would cut down and destroy and which girl she would actually allow to date her brother.

Her eyes fell on the girl in the middle.

She was a short blonde girl with perfectly trimmed hair and a smile that looked like it could win contests. She gestured to the girl and the other two's hearts fell ever so slightly.

Tabitha Clover knew that she had won her chance at Beck Oliver.

Beck Oliver, though, didn't realise that he was something to be won. His experiences from yesterday certainly didn't indicate anything like that in the slightest. In fact, his experiences seemed to show that the girl he liked didn't want anything to do with him.

"Hey!" He heard a voice call from behind him, and Beck turned slightly to see where it came from. It was the guy he had seen yesterday, with his dreadlocks tied up in a ponytail.

"Hey? You're the musician guy from last night, aren't you?" Beck asked him, and the guy gave a slight nod and a smile.

André was smiling because already he was known as the musician guy. At Middle School he was very well known, but he had been at HA all of a day and that was already his rep. André Harris played just about every instrument known to man… except for the flute, that is. André didn't play the flute.

But that was just about it. It had been easy for him to get into HA, the school was pretty much designed for a guy like him. He was singing by the time he was in diapers.

"And you're the guy that made out with Jade West."

Beck's new reputation was a little more unusual. He was used to hearing 'You're Elle's kid brother, right?' but being known through Jade was something he didn't expect. He didn't think that anybody had seen them. To be honest, he didn't think that anybody would really care.

Beck raised one eyebrow and put his hand out in from of him.

"Beck Oliver,"

André took his hand and shook it. "I've heard of you. I'm André."

"How am I not surprised?" It was startling how much Beck had changed from yesterday, when anything and everything had seemed to drive him completely crazy. Now this guy seemed perfectly fine, and it even seemed like they could possibly become friends at a later date.

"So why, may I ask, did the guy all set to become King of this School feel the need to make out with our resident Goth Girl." André had known Jade West since Pre-School, and quite frankly, Jade scared him. She had even scared him back in pre-school, when she got out her miniature scissors and started to cut up some little kid's Sippy Cup.

André tended to avoid her as much as he possibly could, and just hoped that he wouldn't become her next victim. Anybody who pissed her off could suddenly disappear. He had a feeling that Beck should be kind of worried at the moment.

"I don't know. I just like her in a way I haven't felt before. Why am I telling this to a complete stranger?"

André put one hand over his heart and gulped, "Ooh, I'm wounded. And this is why you are telling me this, because us guys have got to stick together. You look somewhat normal, and normal is hard to come across in this school."

Remembering the two… 'interesting' characters he had met the previous day, Beck chuckled. "I have a feeling you might be right."

If Jade knew that she was being discussed right now, she would either have been offended or intrigued. She would have probably been offended.

But Jade had gotten over last night by now. She didn't care about arrogant Beck Oliver, who thought that he always deserved to get his own way. The truth of the matter was that he really, really didn't.

Jade was determined that for once, Beck was not going to get his own way. Jade was going to win this battle; she was going to come in first place. She didn't even care that she had just mixed a metaphor.

She was going to give Beck Oliver some payback.

It was rare that Jade stooped to the levels of a prank like this, but honestly, today she couldn't resist the lure of the super-glue calling out to her. It was childish and definitely immature, but it felt good knowing that she would be able to embarrass him in front of most of the school. Beck, however, was completely unaware of this. He was just calmly sipping his morning coffee as he entered the classroom.

Jade raised her head and gave him a glare, standing up from her seat.

"Oliver,"

Beck smirked at the use of his last name. "West,"

"Follow me." Jade ordered as she left the room, hoping that she had enough power to make him follow. Most of the students in the school would do what she said out of fear, but it didn't seem like Beck was like most of the students here.

In truth, Beck wasn't following out of fear, but instead he was following out of curiosity to see what was going to happen next. His inquisitiveness only grew as Jade headed down the halls, only to stop suddenly next to Beck's very own locker. Jade rested on the one next to it and gestured to Beck to hurry up.

"I need to talk to you," she called, and Beck hurried to catch up with her, placing his arm on his locker, which he already managed to decorate. It was pictures of everything he loved, a montage that spelled Beck from a distance. It had been Lyla's idea; apparently it was what you needed to do in this place.

Jade raised one eyebrow at Beck, and remained silent.

Beck sighed at this stubborn girl who was obviously trying to prove something. He put all his weight on the locker, thinking that it might be a while until Jade actually did anything.

He shouldn't be here. She hadn't exactly reacted very well when he'd kissed her. And she wasn't exactly his type of girl anyway. Or at least, Beck didn't _think_ she was his type of girl. He realised that he wasn't exactly sure what his type of girl was. And if he wasn't sure, then why couldn't it be Jade?.

"Okay, bored now." Jade said as she stood back up straight and began to walk down the corridor, only to stop a second later and start entering the combination to Beck's locker.

"What are you doing?" Beck asked, his tone more of intrigue than annoyance.

"I'm revealing my surprise." Jade opened the locker, and for a moment, Beck wondered how the hell she had gotten his locker combo, but he was stopped by more important things. The locker was full of bright pink unicorns and he could hear 'Barbie Girl' playing out from each one. He tried to get up off the locker and do something, but he couldn't.

With a shock to his system he realised that he was completely stuck against the locker, not able to move.

Jade smirked; this was when her plan finally came into action. With glee, she turned on the little screen that, although normally adorned her room, was occupying Beck's locker for the meantime. As she hit the power button, the last video that Beck would have wanted anyone to ever see began to play.

Beck began full out struggling with the glue as he heard the start of the most embarrassing video in his childhood. He still couldn't believe that he had ever dressed up in Lyla's old dresses and heels, or done that idiotic dance. He really couldn't believe that it was playing for people to see.

Seeing the look on Beck's face made all those hours of hacking last night and going through old Facebook posts worth it for Jade. What made her even more satisfied was the fact that the video was on loop and the glue wasn't going to come off easily, meaning it could easily be a couple of hours of torture for Beck.

That made her happy.

She took a couple of steps backwards, looking Beck up and down. There was something missing, she decided.

Quickly, and decisively she snatched the coffee from his only free hand and continued down the corridor. That was what it needed, she decided as she headed down the corridor, yelling behind her "I think I won that one, Oliver."

Beck knew that he should hate Jade West right now. He should definitely be scared of her, and any smart person would be staying the hell away from her as well. Maybe Beck wasn't a smart person, but there's was just something about Jade that meant she was like a drug to him. She would always leave him wanting more.

_**For those that got annoyed during the lack of Bade at the beginning, I hope the last couple chapters have been better for you.**_

_**And I know I used to update once a week, on a Friday, but I'm back to school now, so it might be more sparse, especially as I'm revising for exams. Maybe more like once every two weeks.**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**: )**_


	11. Revenged

Beck Oliver had to know Jade. He had to know her as more than a friend. Otherwise it would drive him completely nuts. Right now, it looked like she hated his guts, and Beck was determined to change it. After the humiliating thing experience he had to deal with, he should hate her too, but he didn't. He cared more about the little she-devil with every day that passed.

Him caring about her was part of what was urging him to do this brave… and _incredibly stupid _thing that he was about to do. Right now, in his hands, he held a stink bomb outside the girls changing rooms. He had to do this now, because it wasn't often that Hollywood Arts had PE. In fact, they almost never had it, but technically it was mandatory, so they had to take it occasionally. If he set it off, the girls would come running out, and he very much doubted that any of them would be fully changed.

No, Beck wasn't perverted. He just wanted a way to get in trouble, and make enough of it so that they couldn't just give him the benefit of the doubt, and so his sister couldn't try and sort it out for him. Beck wanted detention and he was fairly determined to get it. Inwardly, he wondered just how often anybody sets out determined to get detention and came to the conclusion that it couldn't happen very often. With a deep breath, he looked at André next to him.

"You sure?" André asked him. André didn't have much of a clue why his new friend had decided to do something so stupid, but he imagined it would be funny to see the looks on the girl's faces.

"Yep. Robbie, anyone coming?" It was finally good to have made new friends. Beck was beginning to think he shouldn't have tried to get rid of everybody on the first day. But hey, it was the first day, and he was a complete wreck.

"No."

This was Beck's time to move. He gestured to André to give him a leg up, and he opened up the vault that led to the girls' bathroom. In a moment he was up there and was very glad that it was a straight path right to the vent above the locker room. The clerk had said that once it hit a surface, it should release its gases. He sure hoped it would. He chucked it forward and watched it hit the other side and produce a satisfying _crack_, which sounded good. He sprung back down and shut the vent up quickly, holding his nose.

Soon, the first cries came from inside the locker room.

"Who the hell…!" The first one out was a very angry girl with dark brown hair.

"You…" She pointed at Beck, and it was quite obvious that it had been him, given the bright smile on his face. "I'm going to kill you." The girl was one of the lucky ones, who managed to get out fully dressed, as soon other girl's emerged, clutching their clothes.

Jade came out, her shirt around her, barely done up, and a vicious look of rage on her face.

"Beck!" she screamed. She knew in an instant that this was payback for her earlier endeavour. He was only making it worse for himself, she was going to have to do something worse to them.

"You know him?" Abby twisted around to look at Jade, her dark brown hair flying around at various angles, given that she hadn't had the time to turn it from a frizzy mess into something manageable.

"Unfortunately…. just let me deal with him." Jade snarled and Abby gave her a cautious look before going off somewhere.

Beck smirked at Jade, who he couldn't help thinking was very cute when she was angry. "You'll deal with me then, will you?" He put a flirtatious tone into his voice, enjoying how much he knew he was aggravating Jade right now. It was fun.

"Beck, don't push me or honestly, I will hurt you." Jade was perfectly serious, but it was hard to take her seriously when she was barely dressed.

"Ooooh…" Before the echo of commentators, Beck didn't realise that there was a crowd gathering. Well, in any school with guys in it, a bunch of half-dressed girls was going to guarantee a crowd, but they know had people urging each one of them on.

"Oh, really," Beck knew it probably wasn't a good idea to get Jade into a murderous wrath, but he was going to do it anyway. "How you going to do that?" He just needed to add one thing to really piss her off. "_Sweetheart…"_

With that, Jade lunged at him, anchoring herself onto his hair and tugging him around. Beck was in a difficult position. He was not going to, in any circumstance, hit a girl, but he was beginning to think that he didn't have much of a chance otherwise. Jade was fairly ferociously scratching at him, and if it had been a guy, then Beck would have clobbered him by now. But it wasn't, so this really wasn't much of a fight. Beck was just hoping that eventually something would come along and break it up.

Elle walked down the corridor, and was very disturbed by what she saw. Her brother… _her innocent brother Beck_, was in a fight. She could see who he was in a fight with as well; he was in a fight with Jade West, the girl that she had to get rid of. Damn her previous plan. That could wait. And she could take a detour to History anyway. Elle, surprisingly on her own for the first time in a while, turned on her feet and headed to the Principal's office.

"Jade! Get off of me!" Beck screamed as he tossed and turned.

Jade slid off and backed up a little bit. "Too much for you, Oliver?" Jade knew that she shouldn't have full on attacked him, but she was caught up in the moment, and he was such an ass. He was so annoying that she felt that someone should hit him. And if it wasn't her, who would it be? Certainly nobody else in this school had the guts to do that to '_Mr. Popular'._

"Please," Beck laughed. "If I wasn't a gentleman, you'd be in serious trouble." Despite the fact that those words held a warning, he still managed to be teasing and coy.

"You might pretend to be a gentleman, but I'm definitely no lady."

"I can see that…"

"No, I'm serious. I'm not the type of girl that will let anybody walk over her, and I'm not the type of girl that would _ever _go for a guy like you. It would never happen, not in a million years."

Beck flinched a little at her comment. He realised that he did really want to be with Jade. He honestly did. He wanted to be able to call this girl his girlfriend. She was just so amazing. She was unique, unlike the hundreds of other girls out there. There was nobody else like her in the entire world.

"You sure about that, Jade?" He asked, biting back the insult on the tip of his tongue. He didn't want to torment her more, but it seemed like that was the only connection that they had. If they weren't enemies than they were strangers, with nothing in common, at least if they were enemies… they were something.

"Certain."

"Excuse me, what is this?" The booming voice of the Principal came through, with Beck's big sister by his side. Everybody knew that Principal Greene was a complete pushover, especially given the fact that he was only a temp. Principal Ikner had been good, but since his illness, Greene had taken over. He was partly what allowed the seniors to rule the school. Beck knew that it was unlikely that he would give him detention.

Elle stood next to him. This had been planned out to the moment.

"That was Jade West's fault. She attacked my little brother… everybody here saw her jump him." Elle hissed in his ear, quiet enough that Beck couldn't hear her, but a couple of people surrounding them nodded their heads.

"And the stink bomb?" Greene asked.

"That was her too…" Elle made up on the spot. She felt like a bit of a bitch about it, but this was what was best for her brother, it was undeniable.

"Alright, then… Jadelyn West!"

Jade head swivelled to look at the mess of a Principal in front of her. "What!"

"It seems you weren't happy with your previous detention for your prank on Mr. Oliver here. It seems you need to have detention tonight as well."

Beck cursed inwardly. This was not the plan. He was supposed to be able to join Jade in detention, where he could actually talk to her. He wasn't supposed to get her more.

"So?" Jade hissed and Greene shook his head. If Jade didn't care, then there was nothing that he could do. As the crowd dispersed, seeing there was nothing interesting happening, Jade looked at Beck, even more annoyed than ever. Then she stormed off.

Beck headed back to class. This really was not how it was supposed to go. How was it possible that he had set off a stink bomb and _still _not gotten detention? He had to think about a different way. Dejected, he stopped on his walk, not being bothered to show up to Science. Maybe if he bunked, he'd get detention then. Or maybe he wouldn't… it didn't seem to matter.

To his side he could hear voices.

"Hey, Oliver!" Beck didn't respond for a moment, he just assumed that Lyla had shown up somewhere.

"Oliver!" The second time, he raised his head slightly and looked at two approaching freshman boys.

"Oliver, that was awesome." The two boys were the type of people that Lyla would probably approve off, jocks. One had a spiky hair cut that was supposed to be all the rage, while the other one, honestly… looked like a dark haired Justin Bieber. It was 'Spiky Hair' that was complementing his prank.

"Yeah, seeing the looks on those girls' faces." 'Bieber' added.

"But mind you, it wasn't their faces I was looking at." A creepy smile grew on Spiky Hair's face. Bieber gave him an all-knowing nod.

"Did you see that Cat chick? She's completely pyscho, but I'd so totally hit that." Beck felt a little bit of rage come up in side of him as he heard those two talking about his new found friend. He couldn't believe it was possible to be such dicks. Maybe this was how normal guys reacted, but he doubted him. He had to have a little bit of hope inside of him for his gender.

"Oh, and that Jade girl… I'm envious dude." Bieber said, and Beck looked up at him. His anger was rising at unbeatable pace. He was going to hurt him soon. That a-hole was not allowed to talk about Jade. He wasn't allowed to mention her, or look at her, or even think about her. "I mean, her hands clawing all over you, and she only just had her shirt on as well."

That was it. Beck couldn't help himself. He reached out and he hit the guy, right in the nose. He felt all his anger fly through him. _Nobody was allowed to talk about Jade West like that._ The guy looked back at him, clutching his nose which was beginning to drip with blood.

"What was that for?" Spiky Hair asked, and Beck raised one eyebrow.

"It taught him a lesson that him needed to learn." He hissed. "Now get out of here before you learn it too."

Within a second the two guys had scarpered down the corridors. Beck turned around and right in front of him was the Principal. Literally, a step away from him, Greene was standing, his hands on his hips.

"Well then, Mr. Oliver, you can join your little girlfriend in detention tonight."

Just then, Beck realised sometimes thing really do turn out like you planned, as much as it seems like they wouldn't.

_**More Bade! You cannot still claim that there is not enough Bade, it is honestly not possible. Next chapter will be a Jade/Lyla confrontation, and a Bade moment that I'm pretty certain some of you will scream at.**_

_**Oh, and I am so sorry, I'm late. I completely forgot about it last night, and I only remembered when I woke up this morning. Please forgive me!**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_


	12. Defied

Beck struggled a little after school to actually find the room where detention was. He was used to going to places like that, and it wasn't exactly on the tour. And he didn't want to late; it wouldn't be good to get another detention for being late to detention. Or maybe it actually would. Beck figured that being in detention with Jade for a couple of hours would be closest thing to an actual date.

He didn't really think that he would ever manage to get a decent date with Jade. The girl hated him; he knew that far too well.

Jade didn't have any difficulties finding the classroom; she may have only been at school for a week, but this already felt like home to her as she put her feet up on the desk, and relaxed as she watched Mr. Simon spazz out a little bit. She plugged in her earphones and felt the noise of one of her rock songs fill her head, knowing that Oliver would be here. She shouldn't really know that he was going to be here, but she couldn't resist just listening in to the gossip around school to see if she heard his name. And apparently although he had escaped punishment for the initial fight he had still gotten screwed from hitting a guy.

She knew she shouldn't know that. She couldn't know that. She was supposed to hate him. She did hate him.

Didn't she…?

What was up with that annoying nagging voice in her head saying that she didn't completely hate him? What was up with the fact that she admired him for his pranks? The scary thing about it (and nothing was scary to Jade) was that she really didn't know. She didn't know how she felt about that guy with his hair that was really far too long for a boy's to be without looking ridiculous. The only guy that had looked at her like she was special, and pretty, even though she didn't wear a cheerleading outfit that came with the shortest skirt that she had ever seen. It was just a ridiculous thought in her mind that hadn't existed last night, and hopefully wouldn't exist tomorrow morning.

She couldn't like the guy, especially not after what she had said to him before. And it was just against her ethics to like a chauvinistic pig like Beck was.

So that was that settled. She didn't like Beck… no, of course she didn't. It was a moment of weakness and that was all it was. Jade kept on thinking that, right until Beck walked in through the door.

And then her will crumbled a little bit.

Beck looked at the detention supervisor, and then realised he shouldn't have been worried about being on time. It really didn't matter. Nobody in this room even cared.

Beck could not help but smile as he saw Jade slumped over her desk. With a slow walk, he made his way across the classroom at sat down right next to the almost sleeping girl, and flashed his best smile her way. He knew that the tricks he had used before wouldn't work on this girl but honestly, he didn't know what else to do.

This wasn't something that he had ever experienced before. He didn't have a smooth line up his sleeve, or something clever to make her fall for him. He was reduced to the ranks of a regular guy.

"Hi" Beck said, his voice so low it was almost a whisper, for fear that Jade would react… badly.

_Jade tried to pretend that she was oblivious to Oliver sitting down, but there was a little bit of her that was disappointed that he wasn't saying anything._

"Hi" Beck tried again, just a little louder.

_Why wouldn't he just say hello?_

"Hi!"

_Did he like her anymore? Why did Jade even care?_

Beck stood up, took a step over to Jade, and pulled the headphones out of her ear, at the point of complete aggravation.

"_HI!_" He literally screamed down her ear and Jade cringed, her face displaying a look of pure shock for a moment before she resumed the poker-face that previously occupied it.

She couldn't quite believe that she had forgotten about her earphones being in her ears. She recovered quickly, not letting herself look like an idiot for too long, but the damage was done.

Beck glanced at her one more time, and remembering the look on her face burst out into heavy laughter. Jade gave him one of her famous glares, but he couldn't stop. It was just so funny, watching her like that. In that moment, just due to shock, she actually looked vulnerable. It was so weird, given that before he'd have probably voted her Least Vulnerable in the entire school, well that or Most Likely to Live a Horror Movie.

"Quit it." Jade called, but didn't do a thing. Beck didn't quite know what had taken over him, but uncontrollable laughter was flooding out of him now.

"Oliver!" Jade screamed. "Beckett Oliver!" She repeated herself. "Beck!"

Beck's laughter fizzled out in an instant.

"You called me Beck." It was a simple statement, but it meant a lot of things. It meant that maybe Jade didn't hate him so much after all, that maybe… maybe he had a shot. It was silly to pin all his hopes on one use of his actual first name but Jade really didn't give him much to be hopeful about.

"Well done, Sherlock," Jade remarked, getting back on the ball and quickly trying to recover from her idiotic slip up. "You want me to give you a prize?"

Jade's words kind of went through one of Beck's ears and came right out the other. He was lost in thought. The fact that Jade had actually called him Beck was giving him confidence, although chances were that it was confidence he really didn't deserve.

"So Jade, I was thinking…"

"Wow, you were, that's a shocker." Jade smiled as she interrupted Beck, and for a moment, he wanted to back down.

"I was thinking…"

"Yep, we got that, as unlikely as it is."

"Jade, shut up."

"Make me."

Beck didn't know what it was, but she was just being so annoying, but so beautiful and so… indescribable. He leaned forward, and then there they were again, his lips upon hers. At least he had shut her up.

Reluctantly he pulled away, wondering if it had just been in his head or if she had really kissed him back. He knew it was unlikely, but he couldn't help but think…

"Jadelyn August West, will you go out with me?"

Jade blinked twice. What was she… where was the right answer? She knew he liked her, but that she had just been hoping would go away. She didn't really want to say no, but she had to.

Jade stood up, picked up her books, and turned her back on Beck, making straight for the exit of the detention classroom.

"Jade, where are you going? It's detention, it's not optional."

Jade smirked. "So he can give me detention for skipping detention. It's better than being stuck here with you. Isn't that right Mr. Simon?"

The balding almost-deaf old History teacher glanced up, totally confused. He hadn't even been aware that Jade is in detention, he just did the role-call at the end.

"Jade!" Beck called, but the teacher, now paying attention gave him a stern look. Beck knew he couldn't really afford to get another detention. Jade walked out of the room, with no-one following he at all.

The moment that she was out, she felt like she could breathe again. And once she was out of the company of Beck Oliver she knew that she was a moron. How could she have even thought about dating him? And he had kissed her, _again. _He had no right, and this was going to stop. She was in the middle of musing a payback, (that would hopefully not land her in detention for fear of him showing up again), she bumped into a blonde haired Barbie in a tiny skirt, a real walking, talking doll. But then again, she didn't really care, so she just put her next foot forward and kept walking on down the hall.

Elle examined the gothic girl who had just hit her, and didn't really seem to give a damn. After a moment it clicked in her head. This was the tramp that she had seen Beck kissing the other day. She racked her brain for a name, finally clutching on something that just about seemed right.

"Jade, Jade West."

"That's my name, don't wear it out." Jade couldn't believe that she had just said something so utterly cliché.

"As in the Jade West dating Beck Oliver."

Jade came to a standstill, and turned back to face the Barbie she had just bumped into.

"What… not that it's any of your business, but…"

This was all the confirmation that Elle needed as she walked closer to Jade.

"I think you'll find that it is my business. That is my little brother who is running his chances at _ever_ being popular on a girl like you. I mean, how could you even think that you're on anywhere near the same level as a guy like Beck? You can't date him. I am his older sister, and as someone who honestly knows what is best for him, I am forbidding it. Beck, with a tramp like you?"

Jade raised her eyebrows slightly at the insult, feeling the blood boil in her veins.

"I mean, look at you. You're pathetic. You with your stupid 'Gothic' make-up that just makes you look desperate for attention. And news flash, that i-don't-care attitude is nothing. It's just to hide that little immature child inside of you. Trust me; I've met your type before. Now, why don't you go off and cry like a good little girl and leave my brother alone?"

Elle let her rant out. She didn't care that she didn't know this girl. She already knew everything that she needed to. She knew that she wasn't Beck's type. What she was confused about, was the way that Jade was just standing there. Most people would be crying by now. Elle didn't do what she had just done very often, but when she did she was used to getting a reaction. In some ways it was worse having Elle yelling at you than a girl like Kelli, because it almost never happened.

Jade stared at her for a moment, wondering how Barbie could have the nerve to talk to her like that. It didn't make her want to date Beck any less, not that she had wanted to in the first place. She wasn't completely unaffected by Barbie, it just didn't have the effect on her that Barbie had so obviously desired. But in fact, she just wanted to prove her wrong. She wanted to prove to this girl that she was worthy of a guy like her 'oh so special' little brother. And the fact Barbie had told her not to was a good enough reason to do just about everything, was it not? She examined the Barbie one more time, wondering how someone like Beck could be related to her, and then she continued walking, and went straight out the doors of Hollywood Arts, picking up her cell phone as she walked. Her figures shook ever so slightly as she typed in her message.

**_The answer's yes._**

Within moments a text flashed across her screen in reply.

**_Who is this?_**

She sighed slightly as she typed her reply.

**_Jade. And the answer's yes._**

This time it was a couple of moments before anything came back in reply.

**_How the hell did you get my number?_**

Jade stared at the message again. That was it? He was the one who had asked her out. He wasn't allowed to ditch her now. That would only prove his sister right. And if there was one thing that Jade West hated, it was to lose.

**_Oh, and I'll pick you up at six._**

* * *

><p><em><strong>I AM SO INCREDIBLY SORRY. THIS IS FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR TOO LATE. BUT MY EXAMS ARE OVER NOW, SO I SHOULD BE BACK ON SCHEDULE AND HOPEFULLY I'LL BE BACK TO NORMAL SCHEDULE, AND UPDATING ONCE A WEEK. I SHOULD PROBABLY STOP CAPS NOW...<strong>_

_**Okay, few, my screen just disappeared… but then it came back, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. And I can't believe it, but I've only got another six chapters to write of this story. You guys have been amazing though. Until next time.**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_


	13. Scalded

Elle only had one thing going through her mind. How on Earth did her brother manage to end up with such a gank? Jade seemed to literally be the definition of the word gank. Did she really have the guts to just walk past her like she was nothing? Nobody could just ignore her. It was so frustrating, and she was just… why? Why on Earth did her brother like her? But she had to hope that the Goth had gotten the message and would finally keep away from Beck. If not, she always had her little back of plan in terms of Tabi. It was so sweet, the innocence that the freshmen of the school had.

Wow. When had she turned into Kelli? Seriously, maybe she had been a little hard on Jade, but the girl deserved it. In this school, you had to know your place, not just jump up like three stories higher than you were supposed to be in the social rankings. And Elle had worked for a long time to get where she was. One slip and she could be back down to that little kid she was, crying over a break-up. She wasn't going to let that happen again. So her actions had been completely necessary.

Why did she feel so such a bitch?

It was almost ironic that the moment she heard a cry from Kelli.

"Elle!"

She turned to look Kelli, plastered a fake smile onto her face, as Kelli did the same.

"Kelli!" The enthusiasm in her voice almost made her slightly sick. Once again, Elle found herself wondering why. This was what she had worked so hard for, after all.

"So how are you? I mean, after yesterday and all…"

Elle's brain began to panic. How on Earth did Kelli know that she had gone to visit Piper yesterday?

"Um… I don't know what you're talking about…"

"That weird guy yesterday who was calling you Lyla… and what was that he said about you dating Jared?"

Elle gulped a little under her breath. So now there were a million more things that she needed to worry about. She needed to worry about the awkwardness of Kelli realising about her and Jared back so long ago. She needed to worry about Joey and all those stupid memories. For now it was just better to do the bad thing, and to focus on Jade.

Or she could do the Cat thing and think about how on Earth it was possible that she knew so many people whose names started with J.

No, she was going to focus on Jade.

"Yeah, I'm all fine. Just had to deal with my brother's mistakes again."

"Oh God, Beck and that gank… I gather you got rid of her then." Kelli smirked. "You made her realise that this is a social hierarchy and that she can't just jump steps. That she needs to start at the bottom with the rest of the trash."

Elle forced out a little nod. After all, this was what she had been telling herself just a little bit earlier.

Kelli smiled. "So she's not going to try anything like that again, good. I wish I could have done it myself. It sounds like fun." Both of them knew that however much Kelli might have tried to hide it, the only reason that she was talking to Elle was to find out that Elle had done what she was supposed to, but they both knew it. "So, toodles."

Kelli walked off as swiftly and suddenly as she had appeared. Elle took a deep breath, leaning back against her locker for the moment. With a quick twist of her lock, she opened it up and retrieved her books, not really paying much attention about whether it was Geography or Geometry she was stuffing in her bag. She swung it over her shoulder and turned the other way from where Kelli had disappeared, taking a step round the lockers.

Piper stood there, wondering why the hell she had trusted her old best friend a little again. "I can't believe it. I should have known better. You taught me that last time."

"Wait!" Elle called, but Piper just looked back at her.

"What? Are you suddenly going to tell me that everything isn't what it looks like?"

The question hung in the air for a moment, as Piper glared at Elle. Elle could feel a blush spreading across her cheeks, under her old friend's scrutiny.

"No… of course not, why would I do that?" Elle said, a slight tremor to her voice as she tried to regain the previous confidence she had displayed. She was doing the right thing. Jade was wrong. Elle was right. She. Was. _Right._

"Because that seems to be something that you do a lot. You lie to protect yourself. You get what you want, and you don't actually seem to care in the slightest what happens to anybody else. You think you're nice. You _think _that you've got everybody's best interests at heart. News flash, if you hadn't figured it out yet, you haven't. The only interests that you're interested in are your own." Piper hissed at Elle. Elle stood there for a moment, standing in shock. There was a moment where she honestly wanted to fight back with some clever comeback, but nothing came through her head. She just stood there. "You used to be this sweet little kid. And then your boyfriend dumped you. That is not a reason for you to become the Wicked Bitch of the West. Imagine if Jared's sister had come along as told him that he couldn't date that kid with glasses. And then he'd dumped you. Maybe that's what happened in the first place, and that's what made you go nuts. And now you're trying to do this to another girl."

Elle gulped. Piper's story made a surprising amount of sense. She didn't want it to make any sense at all. We wanted Piper to not have a clue what she was talking about. She wanted to have her moral conscience on her side. But slowly, there was that little thing that was creeping up on her, and telling her that what she had done was wrong. It said that she had no right to try and split up Beck and Jade. But if she thought that, then what did it say about herself? Elle only had to stand there, and just hope that Piper stopped talking.

Unfortunately, Piper wasn't willing to oblige her.

"Even back then, it was like that. You never realised how good you had it, always wanting more and more and more. I couldn't scream at you back then, even if I truly wanted to, because we were best friends, and you… and Joey of course, were all that I had. But I'm not so scared anymore. I can tell you exactly what a bitch you really are." Piper was beginning to enjoy this. She was enjoying yelling at the girl that she had thought she could be friends with again. But she couldn't quite help but see her old face in her new one. She didn't want to. She wanted to be angry. And she was.

"You know, you used to cry over Jared, and think you were unlucky, but both of us knew how in love with you that Joey always was."

Lyla looked at Piper in pure shock for a moment, wondering how on Earth she had been so clueless. They had been friends for years, spending almost all of their time together and she had been so oblivious. Had she liked him too? Lyla just stood there, speechless, as Piper waited for a response. None of what had mattered ten minutes ago mattered at all to her. Her mind was emptying of thoughts of Jade and Beck, and how, maybe, after all, she should just let her brother date the girl she liked.

Piper was wondering if Lyla's expression could possibly be real for once, rather than a lie. She thought that once Lyla began to climb the social ranks she was rubbing it all in Piper's face, that Joey liked her when he had never even considered Piper. She thought that Lyla was leading him on, and it had been the last straw for her. She never thought that Lyla might have actually liked him too, or not known about the entire thing. But now, her anger had fizzled away, and honestly, she had nothing else to say, no more words to yell, and no breath left to scream. The other thing that she had left to do was just to walk away.

Beck's brain was buzzing. Six o'clock, and he would finally have a date with Jade. He sounded incredibly creepy when he said it like that. But he knew he wasn't a stalker. He just couldn't get Jade out of his head; she was there, all the time, down to the colourful streaks illuminating her hair.

Was that weird?

Yeah, he thought that by now he could probably say that it was weird. Actually, he had probably left weird behind a while ago. But who cared, he wasn't his sister, who always had an image to maintain. He was just him, and he could be however weird he wanted.

Oh my God, he was so weird.

Beck brushed his hair back out of his face, and gave a little sigh as he entered his improve class. He sunk down in the seat next to André.

"Can you believe it?"

André gave a sidelong glance at his new-found friend, whom, with all his experience of a week, André could deduce was out of character.

"Can I believe what?" André asked, trying to mimic Beck's tone, without success.

"That Jade agreed to go out with me?" If André had been drinking anything, he would have spat it out. Beck and… Jade? Seriously? Beck was nice, and normal, and Jade was… Jade was seriously scary. André disliked being in the same room as her, always had, always would, even though he had several classes with the Wicked Witch of the West back in Middle School.

"No, honestly, I can't believe it." André smirked, and Beck tilted his head to look at his friend.

"Don't make fun. I like her."

With that André was up again, after all, it had been fifteen minutes until improv was supposed to start, it was unlikely that Sikowitz would even show up.

"And I like that girl with the bright red hair. But does that mean I'm ever going to do anything about it? No. Can you imagine me and her together? We wouldn't work. And that's what's happening with you and Jade."

André left the room after that, leaving both of them wondering which the better way was. If Beck and Jade dated, and then they broke up, then Beck could lose this gothic girl completely. And the one thing that he knew was that he didn't want that to happen. But then again, for all of the way that André would carefully plan these things out, chances were that he and that red-headed Cat would never even be a couple at all.

_**Yep, I have a new name. It's cool.**_

_**Okay, I am a total Candre shipper, so I just had to put that in there, please Cabbie lovers, don't kill me. Earlier, there were Cabbie moments when both Robbie and Cat were introduced.**_

_**And I'm really sorry I'm a day late, I had a massive concert last night, and didn't get hope until like midnight, by which time our wifis off. And my Beta is currently busy, so I've had to check my own work... I'm not good at that.**_

_**(P.S. You know that new system below, guess what it makes it easier to do...)**_

_**Forever Failing Better**_

_**PerfectingImperfections**_


	14. Scared

The Senior boys donned their football gear with a grim look on their faces. It was game time, and this was the important part of the day. They had been practicing for two weeks before school started, partly because of this stupid game. It was a bit of an old rivalry between them and the school they were playing today, one of those ones that nobody has an idea how it started anymore.

It seemed ridiculous to most of them that this took place before there was even time for try-outs, but they all knew the coach would keep them on the team. It was fairly obvious because if one of them went they would all go. Jared led them all onto the field, giving them a look to keep silent. If anybody got provoked today, they could be pretty certain that it would erupt into an all-out brawl. HA and St George's weren't big fans of each other. It didn't really exist in anything but sport though, there was no point. That was part of the reason it was so satisfying to beat the crap out of them, they could prove they could do that as well as sing and dance.

As Jared walked up to take his place as Quarterback and as the Team Captain, you would have had to be blind not to see the figure emerging from the crowd. Most of the guys groaned as they saw the face on the figure and instantly recognised it.

It was a hard face to mistake for anybody else's, especially with the masses of ginger hair that shot out of it.

Even if Rev's limp had repaired itself, the team was still allowed to hold a grudge against them for that night. That night St. George's had the upper hand and Hollywood Arts was determined to make them pay for that in blood, sweat and tears.

St. George's was not going to let them get away with making the coolest guys in the school seem like a bunch of idiots.

Jay was smiling. It was creepy.

Jay was smiling because he had an ace up his sleeve. He had, fairly literally, the team's lucky charm. He knew that all he had to do was to make them aware of this and they would go berserk.

It was a stupid tradition anyway; that there was one routine the cheerleaders did that made them win. Even the HA boys were vaguely aware of that. But that didn't change the fact that whenever the cheerleaders did the routine, however lame it might be, HA always beat St. George's. The year the flier was off sick, they lost.

It was basic logic.

Jay looked past Jared standing in front of all the other guys, straight into the eyes of HA Guard. The one whose back Jay had nearly broken the last time they met.

"Where's your girlfriend, Revvy-boy?" Jay sneered and Rev twisted around looking to the cheerleaders.

He could see Elle, Kelli and her posse a mile away, as well as a load of freshmen and sophomore that all seemed to blend into one. The worrying thing was though, that was no junior girls in sight.

Rev's face went completely pale.

"Faye"

Jade was completely obvious to the drama on the football pitches right now. In fact, if Jade West had known, chances are she wouldn't have cared in the slightest anyway.

So the football team lost…

Boo hoo. It was the absolute end of the world. Jade was going to die a painful death.

If only St. George's hadn't won that last game.

Jade West was a big fan of sarcasm.

The more pressing issue on Jade's mind right now was what on Earth had possessed her to say yes to Oliver. She had to say yes to him off all people. It had just been a bit of an impulse reaction, she thought.

She was just impressed that a guy like him would find it possible to get detention. That was how she ended up in a restaurant, sitting across from him, and watching him brush a little hair out of his eyes. As traitorous as she felt thinking it, a small part of her couldn't help but think that Beck looked adorable when he did that. Suddenly a thought came back to her, when he did that in detention, just before he kissed her again.

It seemed like Beck kept doing that.

Jade didn't know why she was still hanging around him. Maybe it was just to prove his sister wrong. That had been what pushed her to finally accept after all, wasn't it?

Beck however, found Jade more amazing with every second. For once thing, she was witty, strong, tough and still managed to be absolutely beautiful. He thought she was a ray of light, despite the fact she wore so much black. Jade had an electric personality, and although it didn't seem to happen a lot, when Jade was happy, Beck had a feeling that it would be absolutely amazing. He had seen her smile and it had made him fall for her. His ambition with this girl was simply to get Jade to laugh. He thought that it would be amazing.

In fact, it was amazing just watching Jade twirl her spaghetti on her spoon instead of deciding to throw it at him, as he had feared that she would.

"Why do you like me?" The question blurted out of Jade's lips before she could stop it. But it was something she had been wondering about. Beck liked her, and she had no idea why. He wasn't the type of guy that was supposed to go for a girl like her. In fact, she had pretty much never had a guy go for a girl like her.

Not that she actually cared most of the time. Anybody could see that by the way she had reacted to Beck. But that wasn't exactly fair, Beck was annoying. Beck was actually still annoying, but she seemed to be able to see better things in him now that she could before, like his little half smile and his hair that seemed to be just long enough to get in his eyes all the time.

Jade had her walls up for a very long time, and before she was going to lower them, she needed to know why.

"Why would you even ask me that?"

"Because I'm not girlfriend material" Jade smirked, and it struck Beck that there was insecurity beneath that tough persona. That Jade actually, did give a shit. Well, she gave a shit about some things.

"If you're not girlfriend material, I shudder to think who is. You are amazing Jade West and if you weren't girlfriend material, then I wouldn't be here. I'm here because of your confidence, and your spirit and the life you bring even if you're covered in darkness."

Jade blinked twice, just to try and comprehend what Beck had just said.

It took her a while, she couldn't quite believe it. Girls her age would die to be in her situation.

She was somewhat glad that she had said yes to the date. She couldn't believe that she was admitting that about a guy that two days ago she had been declaring that she hated.

Jade was just cool like that.

But this guy, who honestly she had only dated to spite his sister was making her feel like there really was something special about her, that there was something likeable about her. It sounded strange but Jade had never felt like that before, or at least not since she had been very young.

So she reached in, and although technically, her first kiss was already gone, this was the first kiss that she had been willing to give.

Beck supressed an urge to smile as her lips pressed against his. He had managed to win over the girl who had been willing to pummel him to the ground. It hadn't even taken too long either.

"So why do you hate me?" He smirked as she broke off and Jade turned her eyes downwards a little.

Maybe, just maybe, Jade didn't quite hate him anymore. But she wasn't going to admit that to his face, even if she had just admitted it to his lips.

"Don't take it personally, I hate a lot of things…"

"Like what"

"Well…"

In the future, Beck would learn not to _ever_ get Jade started on that topic again. But for now, on their first date, he seemed perfectly content just to sit back and listen to her talk, glad that she was no longer screaming insults at his head.

Faye and Caitlin were walking down the street, slightly late for the game they should probably be at already. It didn't matter that much though, they weren't supposed to be doing anything until the half time. But they knew they should hurry up, Kelli would murder them if anything happened to stop the routine.

It was a superstition.

The routine was so cheesy that it made both the cheerleaders want to cry, but they had to do it anyway.

"Can you believe they put me as flier?" Caitlin squealed. She may have to make a fool of herself, but at least she was the most important fool. Faye smiled at her, not minding in the slightest that Cait had managed to get such an important job. What was slightly getting on her nerves though, was the fact that Caitlin was absolutely determined not to shut up about it.

Currently, Caitlin was in her HA cheerleading outfit, her hair and make-up so much more perfect than at the party, their last big social event.

Faye shivered in memory of the party, it was no fun for them. She remembered being scared out of her mind and honestly she never wanted to see Jay again in her life, or any member of St. George's School. If Caitlin had known what they were thinking, then she would have agreed thoroughly with that statement.

"Yes, I can believe it, you've told me fifteen million and a half times."

"Oh…"

Both of the girls were completely oblivious to the van pulling up behind them, or the guy sporting St. George's jackets inside of it. They were slightly annoyed that they had to miss the beginning of the match, but apparently this was one of the most important things they could be doing.

Faye and Caitlin didn't quite understand how important they were to their football team, or quite how important this match was. This match was the teams way of proving they weren't ballerina's who danced around in tutus… well except for one semester, but that had been a fairly major mistake on Marc's part. If the lost this, then their honour would be completely gone. Not to mention it was a chance to pound Jay to the ground without any consequences.

The girls were just walking, and chatting as the guy swung the van up behind them and with one leap, two guy's hands were around the girls, pulling them into the van, shutting the doors and driving away.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Once more... not actually been beta-ed through, so it's all on my head. And I'm not very good at it.<em>**

**_Actually, a new Beta might be good, if anybody knows anyone..._**

**_And my writing supply on this story i running a little slow. The reason it gets updated is because I have a supply of a couple of chapters written, but that's going to run out, and you know what, reviews really help people get inspired to write!_**

**_(Okay, that was kind of a whole thing to try and make those 40 people who've alerted review! The last time, I got 3... out of 40 people. That's not even funny.)_**

**_Okay, well, see you in a couple of weeks._**

**_Forever Failing Better_**

**_PerfectingImperfections_**


	15. Trapped

"Oh, and ducks." Jade finished her rant as quickly as she had started, crossing her arms and leaning back in her seat, a content smirk on her face at Beck's utterly confused and slightly bemused face.

"Ducks… why ducks?" Ducks where just one more thing in the long list that Beck did not understand about Jade West, although every moment he spent together he understood the girl determined not to be understood just a little bit more.

"Because, don't I have a right to hate those things with their _fluffy _skin, and their stupid _yellow _beaks." A shiver ran down Jade's spine as she dug into her food viciously.

"Jade…"

"What? If this is to ask me about ducks again, well you can just…"

"You're killing your lasagne."

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?"

"Nope… can't say that I do… in fact, I think that's perfectly fine."

"Good."… … … … "Wimp."

Jade's quiet voice wasn't exactly very good, not that she had intended it to be.

"However, I think the lasagne may have a problem with that."

"What?"

"Well, the lasagne may have a wife, and little baby lasagne, and you've just killed it."

…

…

…

"Well…" Jade had to literally prevent her mouth from dropping wide open at the sheer weirdness of Beck's comment. But she was happy it had been so very strange, after all, she was beginning (just a little) to care about Beck, and why on Earth would she ever want to fall for somebody normal.

"Jade, are you speechless?"

"Don't be an idiot."

"Okay then, that sounds more like you."

"I was just dumbfounded by your stupidity."… … … "And stop making that stupid gesture."

"What, your insults murdered me."

"Doesn't mean you have to… what the hell are you doing anyway?"

"I'm clutching my heart."

"Nope."

"What do you mean 'Nope'."

"That's not where your heart is."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." And with that, Jade's hands were reaching across the table to adjust hands. She pulled his hands over just a little bit to the left, and Beck grasped them tight.

"Beck, you do know that you have to let go of my hands, don't you?" A smile was playing at Jade's lips as she spoke, something that was not exactly a usual occurrence, but around Beck, it seemed to be happening more and more and more, as if Jade was losing control of her lips. Normally, she would only be caught smiling when she was winning, and if this date had been a game between her and Beck, then Beck would definitely be winning.

"Says who? This is a free country, I can do whatever I want." Beck entangled his hands with Jade's a little more, an answering smirk emerging on his own face, although Beck was rarely seen without his winning smile.

"You're lucky I haven't called the cops on you for harassment."

"Guess you really do care about me then." Beck smile only grew at Jade's slight slip up in her reveal of affection.

"No, you're just too pretty to last in jail."

"So I'm pretty."

"Yeah, in that kind of baby doll Barbie look." If there was one thing that Jade knew how to do, it was to recover fast. She had grown up with three brothers, it was instinct, as deep in her subconscious as it was never to ask, 'Do I _look _like an idiot?' But near Beck she was at her wit's end, her palm's sweating as she thought of a reasonable response.

"I thought you said I looked like Aladdin." Beck's mind searched back to check if it had indeed been Jade that had nicknamed him after the ridiculous Disney character, before basically deciding that it sounded like something Jade would do.

"Yeah, see such a pretty Disney Prince."

"You sound like something wrong with that."

"What do you mean?" Jade's jaw dropped in fake shock. "Oh my God, you're an Aladdin, aren't you?"

"Sorry, what."

Jade leaned right over, her lips next to Beck's ears, while Beck smiled on in amusement.

"You're gay, aren't you?" She whispered, causing Beck's actual jaw to drop as she pulled back.

"WHAT!"… … … "Um… Aladdin wasn't gay."

Jade threw back her head and laughed.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he had Jasmine and all that."

"I think he was just as close to the Genie."

For once, Aladdin himself was speechless. Jade enjoyed the silence she herself had caused, almost as much as she enjoyed the silence that came from fear emerging.

Beck's brain was working a million miles per hour.

"So if I'm Aladdin, does that make you Jasmine?"

"Yep."

Ignoring the fact that Jade had basically just admitted to not just affection, but romantic affection to him (which wasn't something Beck did often, although he was letting it go more as it happened more), Beck pushed on.

"I thought you'd die from being Disney… not to mention a princess."

Once more, Jade laughed. Jade's laugh made Beck happy, although he could pinpoint exactly what it was that sent that… for lack of a better word, '_feeling'_ right down his spine.

"But Jasmine has a tiger, which makes her absolutely epic. Plus, she's a hell of a lot better than that stupid Cinderella."

"Where are they? Where the fuck are they?" Kelli's voice carried across the cheerleaders as she searched for their main flier, ready to start the routine.

"Calm down," Sophie attempted to reason with her Captain, but it was no good, Kelli was on a rampage, determined to make somebody pay for making her look like a fool. They had to perform this routine, or the team would lose, and there was no possibility of that happening, not even in the school's widest nightmares.

"Who's stupid idea was it anyway, making the Junior the flier?"

"That would be Elle." Sophie was never slow to rat out someone who could have ended up higher than herself.

"Then, I guess she's got to find her. Sophie, go warm up for the flier role." Sophie would have done a fist pump if she felt that she could without ridicule at that point, as Kelli continued her rampage, heading towards the only cheerleader heading away from the scene.

Kelli threw out her hand and grabbed Elle by the shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going? You've screwed up enough, I need you here to cover for Sophie while she takes flier."

"What? I'm going to go find the missing girls."

"Seriously? They just probably decided to bunk it, and leave us to deal with all the shit. Maybe they've just got too big a hangover, all they're high. I mean, you saw what Caitlin was like at that party."

"You saw how much that routine meant to Caitlin, didn't you? She'd never miss it, and Faye would show up as well, even if it was just for Rev. Don't you get it? They might be seriously in trouble!"

"And so what if they are?" Kelli's gentle and relatively delicate voice grew into almost a snarl, and produced a startling image as she simultaneously shook her blonde hair out of her face, the same way as a bitch might. "If you leave, we will lose this game and I'm not willing to risk that."

"Are you blind? Look at Rev, the guy's having trouble standing, let alone playing right now. If I don't leave we're going to go down even further than we have already."

Elle shook Kelli off her as she headed down past the end of the stands.

"If you don't come back, you're off the team. Everything you worked for since Freshman year, gone."

For a moment Elle stopped dead, and then thoughts of Faye and Caitlin flew to her mind. She might not spend all her time with then, but honestly Faye was probably the closest thing she had to a friend in the entire team, even if she was the year below. And Caitlin and her energy had the power to shut Kelli up once and for all, and make sure that the team wasn't quite the same way in years to come. And for the first time in what honestly seemed like months, Lyla showed her heart.

It became easier to keep going once Lyla was out of the roar of the crowd.

"Lyla."

She didn't want to hear anything anymore. She just wanted to find the two of them, make sure they were alright, go home and have a long hot bath and a hot chocolate, and not have to think about what she had just done.

"_Lyla."_

It would have been so much easier just to do what Kelli had commanded and stay there, doing the routine, and pretending that there was absolutely nothing wrong. But Lyla didn't feel like she could do that. She couldn't just shut her eyes and pretend that the rest of the world didn't exist, that nothing else mattered as long as she was popular. For the first time since Freshman year, Lyla once more hated herself. Well, maybe that wasn't exactly true. Lyla had hated Elle since the moment she came into existence, but maybe it had just taken her this long to finally realise that there was more than this.

"_**LYLA!**_"

Lyla twisted around fast to see the one person that she both wanted to see, and honest to God didn't.

… "Joey."

One more thing that she didn't want to think about… She didn't want to consider what Piper said, and how maybe Joey had liked her all alone. And maybe she had been hurting him for all that time. She had been Jared-this, and Jared-that, Oh-My-God-Jared-Dumped-Me-My-Life-Is-Over. And maybe that had been killing him as much as Jared had been killing her. Maybe it had wounded him as much as he wounded her when he left.

But there wasn't time for it. It could wait for another day, when Lyla felt like she could breathe around him, with his blue eyes that held her gaze and just wouldn't let it go, and his hair, never quite ginger, but not unlike Piper's natural colour.

It had never been like this before, but suddenly, completely out of the blue, it was like this now.

But this was all for later.

"Joey… I need your help."

"Cait, it's going to be alright… I promise you that." Faye's voice whispered, as she clutched Caitlin's hand in the complete and total darkness that had engulfed the two. The only thing persuading Faye that had convinced Faye from her initial panic of believing this was what death was like was the feeling of a moving vehicle beneath them, and the heavy and stinking breath surrounding them.

A male voice emerged in response, death and slightly hoarse, but with an obvious sense of glee about it.

"Yes Cait, of course it's going to be alright."

_**Okay, well this chapter is the joint effort of realising that Camp NaNo starts tomorrow so updates while be scarce, and having nothing but the Olympics on tv, which frankly, Team GB is losing… badly.**_

_**But I hope you enjoyed it, don't forget to review, and one question…**_

_**Piper/Joey or Lyla/Joey.**_

_**And I hope Lyla is beginning to redeem herself slight… this was a bit of a redemption chapter for her.**_

_**Forever Failing Better**_

_**PerfectingImpections.**_


	16. Ran

"What?" Joey's eyes flashed between anger and relief. Because of course he was angry, the girl had ignored him for years. So he may have been stuck in Australia, but that didn't mean they had to lose all forms of contact. And then there was the relief that Lyla had actually just admitted that she did need help after all, and wasn't super human.

And the fact that she was asking for help from him just made things a million times better. He didn't quite understand the thing that had possessed him to come here tonight, after all, the big games really weren't his scene. But he just decided to, and now he was glad.

Lyla looked at him solemnly, "Don't make me say it twice." And then, instantly, she felt completely and utterly ashamed. She could tell that Joey saw it too, watching a little bit of disgust make its way into the eyes that were normally so warm to her.

So before he could say the words that Lyla just knew would end up completely breaking her heart, she took him by the hand, and they left the school.

She made her way across the car-park, Joey following without a word to say, and stopped by the car that she recognised as his.

Looking closely at him, she knew that what she was doing wasn't fair to Piper. Nothing had ever been fair to Piper, in all the years that they had known each other. But she couldn't help herself.

Tears were forming at the edge of her eyes, and for just a moment, she felt the urge to break down and just cry there. But instead, she pressed her lips to Joey's. For a moment, she honestly expected him to pull her off him, and send her off in the other direction, but to her surprise, he quickly kissed back. And suddenly, it went from a gentle kiss, to a full make-out session, their tongues intertwining.

It felt like it was never going to end but Lyla knew that it had to eventually. And if it had to, then she was going to be the one to end it. That wasn't because of her pride, or the power she needed, but simply because if it was Joey that ended all of this, she honestly thought that she might die.

As she pulled away, Joey's face displayed a smile so wide that she was worried it would hurt his cheekbones.

Lyla knew that she had to say, even if she really didn't want to. She wanted to stay here forever, staring at that

smile. But she couldn't.

"You can go now…" She would never have been able to shout it out to the world, but she could at least whisper it to her best friend. "You don't need to stay here with me, honestly you don't. I won't be mad, or hold it against you."

Joey opened his mouth to speak, but in a moment Lyla shushed him.

"I don't deserve you. I'm just some snotty bottle-blonde, who doesn't have a chance in Hell with some amazing ginger guy like you. I never deserved you and I never will. I went from being a brunette girl with glasses that could never do anything right, and then, I was suddenly a pretty blonde girl, who still couldn't do anything.

So it's okay. I don't mind if you leave."

Joey stared at her, long and hard. And then he leaned down close to her, and whispered just something in her ear.

Lyla gave a smile, and then slid her hands into his and Joey unlocked the car, and they both sat down.

"You've always been able to do something. I was never in love until I met you."

* * *

><p>"I can get you a taxi if you want… Or my sister could…"<p>

Jade stopped Beck talking with a look. Or rather, normally she would have stopped him with a look. It had only been one date, but he had quickly realised that Jade wasn't going to appreciate Beck bringing up Elle.

Watching her shiver, Beck immediately took his jacket off, and immediately felt the effects. He wasn't surprised that Jade was shivering, it was fucking cold out here. It seemed idiotic that she had forgotten to bring a coat. For a moment, Jade stared at the coat, half way between Beck and her, and then grabbed it, putting it over her shoulders.

Beck sometimes wished the man wasn't supposed to be chivalrous. Life would be so much easier that way.

"How did you get here?" He asked Jade, his voice mixing between exasperation and genuine concern.

"Like I told you, I took the subway. And I'm perfectly fine taking it back again."

The way Beck was smiling at her made her unsure if she wanted to punch him or kiss him. It had that little smirk in it which despite herself, she had to admit was really quite cute, but it also had a very definite patronising hint.

Beck sighed a little. "You are not getting on the Subway at… at… what time is it anyway?"

"It's only like 10 o'clock."

"See, you are not getting on the Subway."

"Yeah, because you're really going to be able to stop me." Jade said it bluntly, not even bothering to add the sarcasm in there. If Beck didn't know that she was being sarcastic, then that was his problem, not hers.

"Last time I checked, I had three inches on you, and several pounds of muscle. I think I could stop you."

For a reason that Beck could probably guess, but didn't want to except, this caused Jade to fall about in absolute fits of laughter. She was actually clutching her jacket with laughter, probably stronger than any emotion that Beck had seen her express. No, that wasn't quite right. It was the second strongest emotion he had seen her express. The first was that time when she kissed him.

He didn't quite know if he was supposed to be angry or not, but he didn't think he was.

Jade straightened quickly, and gave Beck a smile. "The day that anybody can stop me going anywhere is the day that I quit Hollywood Arts." Beck admired her determination, but the prospect of Jade, who was really average height for a girl, walking of while he was trying to stop her was kind of amusing.

Not that he wanted to be in the position to stop her going somewhere, but even having only known her for a couple days he had a feeling that he might have to. Jade wasn't exactly sensible.

He held her gaze for a moment before she scoffed. It seemed to occur to her that if she was going to leave, it might as well be now. She had given him the benefit of the doubt for a couple hours. Okay, so she had kind of liked the date. So she really liked liked the date. But she wasn't sure if she could actually deal with his sister right now. She was honestly too tired to do the whole verbal battle thing, and she didn't really do it in front of Beck. It felt weird, actually caring about somebody else's opinion. It was a very unusual feeling. And she wasn't particularly sure if she liked it.

Jade turned away for a moment, and then walked off. For a moment, Jade felt a hand of her wrist, but she just struggled it off. Beck just kind of gawked at the girl walking away from him, watching her get farther and farther away, until it occurred to him that he should probably be following her.

Jade walked incredibly fast, making her way around the corner and fading into the distance, as if she didn't want to stay here a moment longer and was relatively good at escaping.

He broke into a run to catch up, as she glanced back with a smile. Around them, the area seemed to be deteriorating to worse and worse until he almost expected a white van to pull up offering candy. He guessed that Jade knew where she was going. Well, either that, or she was incredibly good at faking it. Actually, that might well be true as well. It didn't seem like Jade was the type to admit that she had gone wrong rather than to delve deeper into a bad situation.

"Where the Hell do you live anyway?" He asked, slowing his pace as he finally began to catch up to her. Jade cursed inwardly. She couldn't exactly tell him the answer, after all, by now it was pretty obvious that they weren't heading in the right direction. God, right now Beck probably thought she had just crawled out of a hole somewhere around here and dragged herself to Hollywood Arts. Now she was being judgmental, wasn't she? She didn't particularly like being judgmental, after all, how many times had she been judged immediately? She was sure people who had just crawled out of a hole around here were perfectly nice. Well that, or they were complete and total assholes. In fact, chances are, they were assholes. Most people were assholes.

Right now, she didn't exactly have that many options. She could stop and hope something better happened, she could call somebody, or she could just keep walking. Despite her best interests, she just kept walking, inwardly cursing Beck for messing with her mind and screwing up her emotions. If he wasn't screwing up her emotions with his stupid hair, then she wouldn't have taken that wrong turn what could have been miles back now. She heard a little groan behind her, and honestly, she wanted to groan too. Things seemed like they had actually gotten worse now, although she wasn't sure how. Maybe Beck had decided that he was just going to walk of now. She wasn't going to admit it, but that would definitely be a bad thing.

Beck honestly couldn't believe it. He groaned just a little as he took in the number plates. Lyla was really back here. Right now, it seemed like fate was completely laughing his arse of at them. They weren't actually her plates, but he had seen the car a million times. He had seen it when it was Joey's dad coming to pick him up, when it was Joey's, and it wasn't hard to believe that it was Joey's now. And chances were, that Lyla would be there. Well, actually, chances were that she wouldn't be, and chances were that it would just go straight past, but fate was really screwing with him and he was pretty certain right now that it would stop and Lyla would get out.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," He repeated, his voice starting out quiet, and growing louder and louder until he was pretty certain they were stopping.

"What the Hell are we doing?" Lyla asked, watching joey steer down a completely random lane, probably just hoping that suddenly they would come across them. She was trying her hardest to help, but honestly, she didn't even know where to start.

Joey sighed, glancing at Lyla for a moment, if just to remind himself that he was still here with her. Then he shook his head ever so slightly. He had absolutely no idea. He slowed the car, pulling in to the curb. "If you could tell me, I would be really pleased."

"Since when did I ever have any idea what I was doing?"

_**Okay, I am not really certain what on Earth this was, but it's an update, so remember to review!**_

_**... Please...**_

_**Forever Failing Better**_

_**PerfectingImperfections**_


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